Alex & Steve
by DWalkthroughGuy
Summary: Steve spawns himself into a new world to explore, adventure and build! Only to find something eerily different about it... Alex! But this world was under the Ender Threat, an ominous plague that (literally) made the world the End! Alex was assigned the task to defeat the Enderdragon, but she knows she can't take it on her own. Will Steve be up for the adventure?
1. Chapter 1

Steve spawns in the new world he generated. He takes in a deep breath of air, getting ready to conquer it and make it his. Although Steve was moderately new, he was familiar with the game and knew his way around different situations. He was excited so he could build a house, mine, fight monsters, collect food, eat food-

But there was something different about this world, like a presence of some sort making itself known. It has always been 1.8.1 when he loaded the world; he hasn't updated it either. He knew there was something eerily quirky about the world that was distinguishable from other ones. Steve shrugs it off for now and goes off to find sheep he could use for a bed before he began anything else.

* * *

Steve snuggles into his wool bed in a makeshift hut he made from wooden planks and a door he'd build off of the next day and make into a full house. His house would be in an open clearing with surrounding mountains, hills and forests around it. From then on he'll just expand it or add anything necessary such as windows, paintings, etcetera. 'What is that?' He thinks. The feeling of eerie presence is here again.

"Herobrine?" Steve says, drawing a stone sword closer to his bed. He was expecting a deep low growl and then have him pop in his face before he is sent to his permanent death. Like all the worlds Steve has made that involve survival, they weren't on Survival. He liked the concept of having the world go to waste if he didn't live properly, making him more meticulous, skilled and aware than one with the ability to come back to life whenever they want.

Steve stayed up most of the night with the sensation of a presence inducing insomnia. "This isn't normal..." He says to himself. He has to sleep, but he simply cannot do that. There's too much going on in his mind.

After what seemed liked an eternity of unrest and tossing and turning, he eventually turned in and fell asleep.

* * *

Steve wakes up, a bit groggy from not having slept like he should have. "Good morning world!" He gets up and stretches, opening the doors to a beautiful sunrise. He snags an apple he found while chopping down trees and takes a big bite out of it, revising his plans for today.

Throughout the day, as he tilled the soil to farm, built the floor and walls of his house, crafted his tools and lit up his house at night, the sensation was making him curious. 'What is in this world that is so much different make me feel as if I am going to explode if I don't find out?' Steve thinks to himself.

He feels as if he can find out soon, but not any time today. Steve calls it a day as he crafts some bread for dinner and cooks up a pork chop. He hunted a few pigs this morning. Plopping in bed, he goes yet another day not knowing what the mysterious sense could mean.

* * *

Steve wakes up the next day, feeling fully rested. Filled with the urge to explore, he grabs his iron tools, iron sword, some bread and porkchops, torches, a half stack of cobblestone and a leather cap. He sets out to adventure in the unknown lands in front of him, taking what little he had. Steve sighs, his sensation of curiosity is just something he's going to have to deal with.

After a morning and afternoon of exploring the world northwards, he went through the forest of oak and birch, a mountain and a large river. He sighs loudly, turning around to go home.

Steve stops and turns around, seeing a roof tip in the horizon. "What is that?" he asks himself. Steve realizes what he was seeing. "Is that a village?" Steve grins and runs toward the roofed object.

Steve climbs over a hill to overlook an entire village. It wasn't big, but it had its own iron golem patrolling the streets. Grinning with glee as the sun sets at the mountain on the other side of the village, he runs back to his home as fast as he can so he can collect his trading supplies. "Tomorrow is going to be great!" he says, running to his home.

* * *

The next day, Steve grabs whatever he could take that the villagers could've wanted: paper, sticks, sugar, wheat. Steve arrives at the same hill overlooking the entire village, running down to it in impish happiness. Steve sees a small collection of villagers and a tent over at what seems to be the central part of the town, surrounding what looked to be the central well.

Peddlers quickly barrage Steve with trade offers, most of those Steve engaged in and quickly dismissed as he moves from one trader to another. Steve sees another trade group surrounding someone, someone that isn't a villager. Most of the villager traders have left Steve already, all crowding around the other person. Steve slowly walks to him, putting away his traded treasures. He approaches the tiny crowd as one by one villagers begin to disperse, some disappointed and empty-handed and some holding an item like a stack of books or a few emeralds.

Then he sees her.

"That is no villager," says Steve. Steve was the last one around the whole place, with all of the villagers resuming their businesses. "Hey."

She turns around and sees Steve, almost jumping back. "Hey! Who are you?" she asks him.

"I'm...I'm Steve..." Was this seriously what he was looking for? Because it definitely was something he did not want.

"I'm Alex. What are you doing in my world?" she says curtly. Steve looks back.

"No, this is MY world, I made this world. What makes YOU think that YOU generated it?" Alex looks back.

"Maybe because I DID generate it..." They stare at each other for a minute in resent. "This is my world, and I'm not letting someone else take that!"

"I made this world, so I get to have it!" Their argument was begin to grow as some of the villagers on the street, and the iron golem, glance at them. Alex shakes her head slowly.

"Oh it's mine! It's on!" she stamps her foot forward. Steve squints.

"Bring it!"

"It's my world so I get to take it! I was the first!"

"Actually, you didn't exist until 1.8.-"

"SHUT UP!" she screams, causing Steve to back up a little. "I'm saying it's my world and you need to get out!"

"We'll see who gets to have the last laugh..." Steve grumbles, walking back to his home.

"Alright! We'll see!" Alex walks back to hers. "You're going down for sure..." she mumbles.

* * *

**Okay so I've never made any stories in Minecraft so this is a first. Feedback is appreciated!  
**

**Thanks anyways!  
-DWalkthroughGuy**


	2. Chapter 2

Steve couldn't believe it.

There was someone else in his world! What made her think SHE had ownership to it? HE generated it, so SHE should be the one getting out! Steve opens the door of his home, shutting it behind him as he sighs. He takes his inventory and puts it in his only large chest in his unfurnished home, not bothering to organize. The thing he was worried about the most was what she could do. Luckily his home wasn't close, so it'll take a bit of work for her to find his humble abode.

The problem was he didn't know her house either.

Steve was swirling with questions. What could he do about her? He has to get rid of her before she RUINS the world! Steve sighs, laying in his bed, trying to fall asleep.

Steve wakes up the next morning, up to feed the chickens and cow he captured yesterday and put into his fence pen. He checked his crops from the inside through his huge window. He sighs. He knows he has to do something about her, and whatever it is, he wants to do it today. "This won't be hard..." he comments, smiling maliciously. He takes whatever iron he has and crafts it into a full set of armor. Steve arms his iron sword and takes a few apples, a porkchop and a torch just in case.

Steve exits his house and gets ready to fight that HIDEOUS monster in her world. He practices his sword skills as he swings at leaf blocks as he passes through the forest. After reaching the mountaintop, he sits down and leans against a stone block, munching on an apple as he looks up in the sky. Steve hears a stone clicking on the mountain as it falls down, echoing in the valleys. "It's probably just a sheep..." Steve tells himself, but he looks around anyways. He looks around his surroundings, trying to find whatever made the noise.

* * *

"Hey." Steve whirls around and picks up his iron sword. It was Alex.

"Ha! You found me-" Steve looks at her up and down. Alex giggles and chortles a bit at Steve's attire.

"Nice iron armor," she says. Alex was wearing diamond armor and wielded a diamond sword. "So are we fighting or would that be against your rules?" Steve looks at her, standing still. Steve's hands want to mangle her, but his brain does not. She waves her hand. "Hello?"

Steve snaps out of it. "Should we be?" Alex takes out a diamond axe and throws it at Steve. It hits him and dents his chestplate. He almost falls down. "Fighting tough, eh?"

"What'd you expect? I want to keep my world, don't I?" she looks at him. The sun sets in the western horizon as the stars become a bit more visible in the night sky.

"You mean trying to get something you really can't get?" Steve smirks at her. Alex picks up the axe she threw and throws it again. Steve ducks, letting the axe fly out of the mountain. The diamond clanks on the stone below. Steve looks behind him to see the axe.

Smiling, Alex takes the chance and shoves him with both hands. Tipping over, Steve instinctively grabs Alex's foot, bringing her down with him. They both tumble down the mountainside until they reach the grassy bottom, where the sounds of night mobs grow louder and louder. Steve gets up just fine, but Alex was gripping her knee.

A skeleton shoots and misses near Steve. A zombie comes near him, pushing him back into a creeper. The creeper detonates, getting rid of some of the mobs around. A spider leaps at Steve, who hacks it quickly until it dies. Steve was getting ready to run back home as fast as possible.

"Wait!" Alex says, gripping her knee tightly. "Help!" Mobs near Alex as Steve looks back at her for a few seconds. He smirks and runs away, not looking back. "Wait! Agh...come back!"

* * *

Steve smiles. Ha! Thanks to the mob group, she should be gone forever! The world is his now. "Well, glad that's over with," he says. As long as no one's trying to take something that's his, he should be fine and calm.

Steve stops crafting his bread for a second to muse. Maybe he doesn't need to be alone. Someone to help him around could be pretty helpful... "No," he says out loud, finishing up the piece of bread he was working on. He opens the large chest and takes five bones before putting on an iron helmet and leather jacket among a few other things to accompany him on the trip to the eastern tundra he hasn't explored yet.

'I don't need someone to help me...' he encourages to himself. 'I need a dog.' Steve walks into the snowy tundra as he grips the cluster of bones in his hand. He sees a block of wool randomly lying on the ground.

He's getting close.

Steve hears a bark in the distance. "Ha!" Steve runs towards the direction of the noise. "This wasn't that hard..." Steve sees the dog...

...but it had a red collar. "What?" Steve exclaims. Alex glances over and sees Steve. She frowns.

"You JERK!" she runs over to Steve, tackling him to the ground. The dog attacks Steve as well.

"Agh! What? Stop!"

"Oh, what do you mean stop? Is this a bit too much to TAKE?!" she slugs Steve straight in the face as his head goes back to the ground.

"Look! I'm sorry alright?! Just please! Don't kill me!" Alex holds her fist up and stops before landing the punch.

"Why should I?" Steve stops. He really didn't know why.

"I'm sorry! Please, just let me go and I won't bother you again!" Alex glares at Steve.

"Liar!" she punches him again, his health draining with each punch.

"Please!" he pleads one more time. Alex holds her hand up to command the dog to stop attacking him.

"Fine. But one more time-"

"It won't happen again!" Alex glares at him one more time before telling the dog to get up and move back to their home. Steve shakes the dirt off of him.

Alex exits the tundra, her frown still on her face. "It better not happen again..."

* * *

**Yey. I'm having plot instabilities. Give me some time.  
**

**Eat bread!**

**Thanks anyways!  
-DWalkthroughGuy**


	3. Chapter 3

Steve walks back to his home, a bit agitated. Has he really just become submissive to the girl that was supposed to be submissive to HIM? He wasn't really sure why he gave up his security, maybe because he could've died from it, but he had other thoughts in mind. Why did his mind decide to just NOT lash back? He walks home, not worrying about not being able to get a dog anymore, and more focused on his own internal conflicts more than anything.

"I gotta clear my head..." he says the next morning, sitting on the side of his bed. He gets all the items he brought with him last time and sets out southward.

Swinging his iron sword over his shoulder, he sets afoot towards the vast and sharply mountainous heights. The south mostly consisted of a low elevation which dropped off like a cliff down to a forest. There were large "mountains" that seem to be jutting out of the surface as if someone from below pushed it upwards with a giant finger. They were abruptly edged, some soaring past the clouds.

It took him quite a while until he reached the top of just one of the vertically-stretched plateaus. He reaches his arms up, his hand nearly brushing the cloud casually floating above him. The spectacular view stretched on for a long ways, revealing nothing more than scenic forests and more of the stone giants he was currently standing on top of. Steve leans against a tree as he takes out a chunk of bread he crafted yesterday, sitting in the cool shade as the Sun reaches about noontime.

But as he sits, something catches his attention.

* * *

Off to the distance, FAR off to the distance, he sees a little quaint cottage perched directly on top of another stone "mountain". It seemed a bit too small to fit Alex or any other player, but Steve felt the urge to find out. He takes a bucket of water, throwing it downhill, letting the stream touch the ground before collecting the water source back into the bucket as he sails down the stream, racing the drying up water as he touches the ground shortly after.

"This is gonna take a while..." he says to himself, walking forward.

It was almost late afternoon as he approaches the large plateau. "There it is!" he says tiredly. Steve trudges forward to begin his ascent up the mysterious cottage when something else even MORE marvelous catches his eye. Off a bit to the right of the base of the plateau was an advanced house.

"What..." he begins, staring up at envy at the extravagant estate. He couldn't help but to be drawn by the sight, almost wanting to...break in. Steve eagerly takes out his pickaxe and walks up to a giant window, one that covered most of the wall and was in one piece. Instead of shattering a giant hole within it, he decides to become a bit stealthier as he picks away at the edges of a single window pane.

This didn't take him long until the window pane in the corner eventually pops open, leaving a hole just large enough for Steve to fit through. He conceals the window pane by crudely putting it back to its spot and walks in to the wooden wonder. The floor was made of all kinds of wood and designed in a fashionable manner: birch was the main floor wood as spruce wood surrounds it on the outer edges. Potted flowers such as azure bluets and blue orchids were everywhere in the front room.

Steve simply had to see more.

He runs up the large, open stairs entering a hallway. 'Where to go?' his mind scatters. He goes to the right and enters another hallway running to the right with three wooden doors on the left side and large window panes lining the right. He slowly takes in the beauty as he peers into one of the rooms, which was packed with numerous chests and weapons leaning against them.

'Must be the weapons room...' Steve thinks, entering quietly. He peeks into one of the chest, which was full of enchanted diamond weaponry and armor. His mouth was wide open.

Maybe he could simply...just...maybe...

Steve's hand reaches into it and takes out a diamond sword, newly crafted, enchanted with Protection X and Sharpness III. He takes it into his inventory and looks at everything else in the room. Over there was an armor set made of diamond. A sign next to it said:

**ALEX'S FABULOUS SUIT  
OF DIAMOND ARMOR!  
DO NOT TOUCH WITH-  
OUT MY PERMISSION!**

This was Alex's house?!

'That's the same suit she wore when she met me on the mountaintop!' he realizes. He had to get out before someone finds-

Sounds of footsteps sounds through the hallway. Steve begins to panic. Where should he go? Where CAN he go? Luckily it was a big house. He quickly closes the door leading to the weapons room he had left ajar the whole time and sat in a corner of the room, far from the door and hiding behind a row of large chests bolted on the wall, one atop another.

* * *

The footsteps grew louder as Steve huddled tighter into the corner, praying to Notch that she wouldn't enter the room. The door opens and a head peers inside.

"Hello?" Alex says, looking around the room trying to hear something. Steve huddles deeper into the corner, praying to Notch that Alex wouldn't find him.

'Please don't go in, please don't go in, please don't go in...' Steve shuts his eyes tight as the door finally closes. It was unbelievable. She was gone!

Steve had to escape right now. If he didn't do it sooner or later, he was bound to get caught. His only easy chance was to get through the window pane he cut out earlier, hoping that he could wriggle himself free before Alex notices someone intruding her home.

The footsteps fade away as he opens the door very slightly, looking over both sides like crossing a street, and slipping through silently before closing it behind him. Steve has to be quick and as silent as humanly possible, or else Alex will kill him for sure.

Slowly tiptoeing through the hallways, Steve reaches the main hallway, the one that leads to the stairs into the main entrance room. The sound of footsteps weren't audible 'Maybe she's on the second floor' Steve thinks, going down the staircase meticulously, step by step. A board squeaks; Steve freezes.

He hadn't made any noise the whole time, and that was definitely something that could've roused suspicion. He catches his blunder a few seconds later: standing still isn't doing him any good either. Steve continues his stair journey, finally reaching the wooden floor on the bottom.

'The bat has landed...'

Footsteps sound through the other hallway to the left. Steve panics. That's Alex for sure! He dives towards the window pane he put loosely together and pushes it open. The stamping grows louder and nears closer as Steve finds that he is stuck! Struggling, he finally chooses his last resort, takes his iron pickaxe and smashes a hole above him with just enough space for him to stand up, fit through and run away into the forest.

"Hey!" a voice calls form indoors. "Come back!" Alex continues, but Steve sprints away. He dashes past all of the spiders and creepers and zombies that were all clawing at him. Steve runs deep, deeper into the night until he climbs over the cliff that returns him back to his home plain. 'I hope she didn't recognize me...' he thinks to himself.

Yet again, who else could've it been?

He walks slowly to the center of the plains, his head down in drowsiness...

...only to see his home in shambles.

* * *

**Again, one of the longest chapters I've ever written. I call these "Chapter Titans", as they are not only POWERFUL and GIANT, but important to the advancement of plot movement.**

**I don't know. It was a cool fact to tell. Anyways, I'd like to make a toast! No, just toast. Toast is bread and bread is good.**

**Thanks anyways!  
-DWalkthroughGuy**


	4. Chapter 4

Steve runs to his destroyed house, looking at the destruction. His wheat farm wasn't visible anymore, his penned animals were set free, the chests were looted and his furnace fuel was gone. Steve sits down next to a block of destroyed cobblestone. Digging his bed out of the rubble, he needed to rebuild before night.

The only problem is it's already night, about midnight, to be exact. Steve makes a cobblestone staircase out of the remaining walls still standing. The roof was his platform for tonight, as he sets down the bed on the roof and falls asleep quickly.

Alex would certainly pay for this.

* * *

Alex rides her horse to town. She parks her armored horse and ties a lead to it on a fence post, walking into the tavern. "What's up?" She says to the bartender, sitting down on one of the bar stools.

"There's news about an enderdragon threat!" He says in his thick Scottish accent.

"As if every other world already had that problem. If it stays in the End, keep it there. I'm not risking my life to kill a dragon that'll only give me a useless egg and XP. I've done and seen that too many times."

"Ah, this one's different! Ya see, if ye don't kill it, the thing'll come out from the End and blast us all! Returning the Overworld to the End!"

"Returning?"

"Yes! This whole place was once controlled by the End! End stone was tha floor, purple static was yer sky, and enderdragon pillars were lining the land! It might happen again, gal!"

"And when is this Enderdragon threat going go happen?"

"Soon. We don't know for sure but we know it's happenin' soon." Alex was not the one to accept clichè missions or fight enderdragons, but if it puts her automatic melon farm (that took her almost a year to perfect) in danger, she'll do it. "Probably isn't bad anyways..."

Alex didn't have to do much to survive. She has a deep survival bunker all the way down to bedrock that was made entirely of obsidian and had a strong vault door capable of withstanding enough catastrophe to last Alex for as long as she needs to. The small farm within the vault is powered entirely by torches and grows wheat and melon, enough to feed five people every day, as long as they're willing to eat bread and melon for the rest of the apocalypse.

But the question was about the other villagers, how will they survive? They can't all fit within her bunker, let alone support them. With her best efforts, the village wouldn't last long in the cramped and nearly foodless environment. Not to mention the other structures she's built all throughout the world such as her tremendous wheat farm that stretches across entire mountains or her complex fast travel mining rail system that'll take you anywhere within the cave that's traveling railing quickly and efficiently via crossing rail directions and redstone switches.

Of course it also brings the question, do I really have to prepare for it? Just because endermen and a big enderdragon roams the world she walks in now doesn't necessarily equal death. As long as Alex stays far away from them and wears a pumpkin for the rest of her life, she has a chance of survival.

But so does Steve.

* * *

"Look you and yer dispute with that Steve guy, ya gotta fix it. You have to work together if you both want to save the world. No way you're singlehandedly take down an enderdragon by yourself," the bartender continues, wiping down the stone slab counter with a wool patch serving as a towel. Alex unwillingly agreed. The last thing she wanted to work with was a clone-impostor of her in a world that should be all to Alex and Alex only. "I know it sounds kinda hard with yer gritty friendship with 'em."

Alex put an elbow on the counter and a palm on her chin, pouting. "I don't want to work with him..." she groans like a little girl.

"Ye. I can tell." The bartender puts the towel over his shoulder after finishing off the last slab. "But, some things have to be done." Alex gets up, mounting her horse without a word; her mind was full of rumination and thoughts of the consequences of taking Alex with her. But even though every pixel in her body want to even go a few meters near him. She had to tell him the situation.

Alex sighs and commands the horse to traverse southwards.

* * *

Steve climbs down from the roof he slept on, carefully avoiding missteps or slips along the way. "This is DEFINITELY not one of my plans today!" he shouts out loud into the wild, a few bats squeaking distantly in response. "I'm gonna STRANGLE that Alex when I-"

Steve hears a horse clopping in the distance. It was wearing a suit of iron horse armor, straddling down towards the rundown rubble as Steve stops and waits to await the approaching horse. It stops, someone in a suit of diamond armor hops off of the saddle. They put their hand up as if to signal Steve to stop.

They take off their helmet, revealing curly orange hair and a familiar face. "You little..." Steve grabs an iron sword in his inventory and makes a dash for Alex, fueled entirely by rage. He makes a wild swing to the left. Alex pushes him back and quickly takes out a diamond sword of her own.

"Wait! Wait, I'm not here to-" Steve hacks at her head; ducking, she makes pushes Steve back again.

"What are you here for?! You destroyed my only home!"

"You broke into mine!"

"That was before you destroyed it!" Eventually, Steve gets a better advantage and knocks Alex off her feet. "And why?!" Steve pins her down as she struggles to break free from his grasp.

"That doesn't matter..."

"How am I supposed to live now? I'll have to start all over again, and I'll have to find a new food source and get supplies and-"

"BE QUIET!" Alex yells, eliciting a slight intimidation from Steve. "I'm not here to fight! I'm here to warn you from the Enderdragon Threat..." She takes a moment to breath after the unexpected bout of anger Steve brought on. "Look, I'm sorry about your house...I was just-"

Seeing that he isn't buying it, Alex cuts to the chase. "I need you to help me." Steve huffs.

"Help you with what?" he replies indignantly. "Why would YOU need MY help?" Alex sighs.

"I need you to come with me...to the End..."

"And?"

"Defeat the Enderdragon," Alex ends. Steve raises an eyebrow.

"Why?"

"I'll explain everything once we get going. Come on, pack up." Steve looks at the scattered stone and rocks all over the place.

"What can I pack?"

* * *

**Sorry! I know it's been a while since my last chapter, but you know, life happens.**

**In the meantime, I'll be cooking up some ideas for The Crossover, still with that writer's block :/**

**We apologize for the inconvenience. Please enjoy some bread.**

**Thanks anyways!  
-DWalkthroughGuy**


	5. Chapter 5

Steve looks up at Alex, subliminally reminding her about what she did. "So? What do I bring-"

"I heard you! Look, I'm not giving you anything, alright?" Alex replies, annoyed. Steve looks at her confusingly.

"Well, how am I supposed to help you?" Steve says with the same tone. Alex sighs.

"Go...buy things!" Steve puts his palm on his face.

"I. Don't. Have. Anything. I can't trade, I can't buy, I can't sell, and I'm not selling this sword and bed." Alex smirks.

"Then you can't get your supplies, can't you?" Man, she was playing rough, wasn't she? Steve walks back into the wreckage, searching through it for anything intact and usable. He could only find his crafting table and a few seeds that remained in his mini-farm.

"Well...this is all I have..." Steve holds out the seeds and crafting table. Alex stifles a laugh. He grabs the bed and stuffs everything else in his inventory.

"That's all I have left, too..." he mumbles. Alex crosses her arms and decides to mess around with Steve.

"Alright...we can go to the village...but I get the horse!" She hops on her armored horse, earning a frown from Steve. She commands her horse to move forward, trotting surprisingly quick for a walk. Steve could hear her laugh in her diamond helmet.

Steve walks beside the horse, slightly rushing. "So why did you choose me to help you?" He asks, looking up at Alex.

"I needed some other...human to do this...I can't do this by myself, and I can't do this with a villager." She falls silent for some time. Steve observed that she was worried about something; guilt, anxiety, apprehension?. Steve couldn't pick it out. "Anyways...if you know any other human here, that'd really help." And after that, her negative expression suddenly vanished, as if it never happened.

Maybe Steve was seeing things.

* * *

The duo reach the large village they've become accustomed with. Steve sighs and walks up to a patiently waiting merchant, who gladly accepted Steve's offers in exchange for five emeralds. It wasn't much, but Steve knew he could make something out if it.

Entering the butcher, Steve bought eight steaks with an emerald, immediately heading to the weaponsmith and armorer for combat items. "What? Ten emeralds?" He whispers, walking away from the forgery empty handed.

But Steve had a plan.

Steve sneaks up to Alex's horse, and removes the armor. Luckily, she wasn't nearby. He stalks back to the forgery and sells the horse armor, giving him enough to buy an iron helmet and chestplate.

But Steve needed even MORE.

Steve returns to Alex's horse. He checks for any sign of her presence, and then peers into the horse chest. "Ooh..." Steve picks up an enchanted diamond pickaxe and helmet. He shuts it off and sprints back to the forgery.

This time, he got what he needed: iron leggings and boots, an enchantment for his iron sword and three golden apples, which he got for an offer from one of the armorers. He didn't even need to sell his crafting table, but he did anyways, getting some apples and cookies for the road.

Alex arrives from the inner city she was in, and Steve calmly begins to walk back. "WHAT THE HELL?!" She screams, catching the surprise of nearby villagers. Steve looks up, pretending to be equally shocked.

"What happened? Your horse armor!"

"Someone stole it! It was you, wasn't it?" The armorer and weaponsmith walk back into the forgery, hoping that their traded things won't be taken away.

"Why would I? I don't even have a horse!"

"Well, you'd need it for money, wouldn't you?" Alex retorts, taking a stomp forward. Steve stops. With a huff, she hops on her horse, avoiding eye contact with Steve. She sets her horse off with a command, leaving Steve to follow. Alex makes it past the town temple and well, everyone knowing that she was upset. Of course, their automatic response was to assume that Steve aggravated her.

Alex enters a trail of gravel. This one led out of the city and into a forest. 'Must lead to her house...' he thinks, observing the oak and birch tree variations.

* * *

"I can't believe you did that..." she mumbles, not taking her eyes off of the road. Steve looks back up angrily; he's still in acting mode too.

"I didn't do anything! Someone just stole some things, that's what! You have the most valuable things around, so it makes sense that someone did..." Alex didn't respond; she just stares forward, ignoring Steve at all costs.

"Do you have Eyes of Ender back at your place?" Steve questions, trying to forget everything that happened beforehand. Alex looks back at him as if he just proposed to her.

"What?"

"Well, we need it to get to the End...right?"

"I have my own End portal, so don't bother." She looks back up to the road.

"Oh."

After another ten minutes on the road, Steve begins to see glimpses of her property: signs, branching roads, walls and a huge, HUGE house. "You better not try to do anything stupid..." Alex says, riding to a stable. She hops off her horse and ties a lead to a fence post.

Steve takes a look inside the stable. It was beautiful! There were two rows of horses on each side, with each horse inside a stall. The fence stalls blended well with the stable walls. Two gates acted as a door, which also blended with the other structures. Hay covered the floor, acting as a good insulator and "carpet". How easy would it be to just burn it...?

No, Steve wouldn't do that. She was trying to help. She even had mercy and refused to kill him when he did some things wrong. He didn't want to ruin all the hard work she did, and Steve admitted it: she was the original, not him.

Alex comes back, still fully suited with diamond armor. "Come on," she motions for Steve to go inside, unlocking and opening the double doors of her house.

* * *

**THIS STORY HAS RISEN FROM THE DEEAAD!**

**ARISE, MY STORY! AWAKE FROM YOUR ETERNAL SLUMBER!**

**Anyways, I'm just glad I can work on this now.**

**Thanks anyways!**

**-DWalkthroughGuy**


	6. Chapter 6

Steve enter the humungous building Alex called home, still surprised at the rather spacious room even after he sneaked into it the first time. "You sure you have everything ready?" She asks. Steve was surprised she was concerned, but nods in response without questioning it.

"Alright. I'll get everything I need. Just follow me." Alex walks up the extravagant stairs, heading for the wall to the left. Steve went down the hall to the right when he sneaked in a couple of days ago, but he follows Alex this time. "Stay here," she says, entering a room. Exiting, she leads Stevsle further down into the hallway, where they reach a door.

Alex steps on the pressure plate, opening the iron contraption. The room wasn't much of a room as it is a cramped closet, but there was a trapdoor n the second block forward. Alex opens it, revealing a water elevator.

Alex goes down first, slowly heading downwards as she keeps one half of her head exposed to air. Steve does the same for two levels until Alex hops off. She has three levels of her home? All in one area?

Ignoring the seemingly impossible building chance, Steve follows her down another set of hallways. The walls, ceiling and ground were made of polished quartz. When they reach a certain point, Alex gasps. "What happened here?!" She screeches, running up to what used to be an End portal.

The frames were shattered and scattered all throughout the ground. Pieces of gelatinous Eyes of Ender were also thrown around. Alex glares at Steve.

"I didn't do this! I swear!" Steve puts up his hands. Now that they're all alone, Alex could've whipped out her diamond sword and stabbed him right there.

But she knew he didn't. He didn't even know about the iron trapdoors, didn't he? Besides, she needed him for the mission. Alex sighs. "S...Sorry, Steve..." she says, walking away from the portal mess.

"So...what now?"

"We have to go find a stronghold now, manually." Alex opens the wooden door and swims up the water elevator. All Steve could do was follow.

After they arrive at the surface, Alex opens the wooden door. This time, she walks to the left. "You gotta be armed..." she mumbles, barely audible to Steve.

"With what else?"

"Diamond equipment. Iron won't be enough," she advises plainly. Steve wasn't sure if she was angry with him or of herself. She leads him all the way down to a familiar room, the armor room.

"Pick out what you need," she says, opening the door for Steve. He was hesitant, but he decided to take the offer. He knew he needed it.

Steve replaced his armor with two sets of diamond. He also added an enchanted diamond sword in his sword selection. Thirdly, Steve took a diamond pickaxe, a diamond axe and a diamond shovel.

"Sorry I used up so much diamond..." he says, looking up at Alex expectantly. She shakes her head, dismissing it. Alex leads Steve outside to the stable, where she got him a horse equipped with iron horse armor. Alex also got a horse of the same type, and takes it outside. Steve exits the stable, where he noticed Alex froze.

"What's wrong?"

"We need Eyes of Ender. I didn't bring any." Alex hops off her horse and heads back to her home. "Come on!" She motions Steve to follow.

* * *

They make it to the quartz room (as Steve had dubbed) and go to another door instead. In it was the Nether portal, which was in a room lined with large chests. "These chests don't matter," she says, catching Steve peering into one of them.

Alex tosses a potion bottle to Steve. "Fire Resistance for eight minutes. We're gonna need it," she informs. Alex chugs the bottle and puts it down on a hopper. "Just put it down here; it leads to the brewery."

However, Steve was a little skeptical. "It's not poisonous..." she groans tiredly. "Really, I don't want to kill you Steve..." Steve shook his head.

"I'm not trusting you-" Alex throws down a splash potion of fire resistance of the ground, giving Steve the buff.

"Six minutes. You're welcome." Alex steps into the purple haze, waiting for Steve. "I'm not putting my head in until you join me." Steve huffs, standing in the portal. They let the purple swirl take over their perception, the world around them slowly fading to purple.

* * *

The two spawn in the Nether. The transportation had worked, and Steve was surprised. He definitely knew that it was a trap, and his body tensed when the feeling of the portal began to kick in in the quartz room.

He began to take in the surroundings: the hanging glowstone crystals, the gravel cliffs, the ocean of lava below him.

And the Nether fortress behind him.

"We need to get blaze powder." Alex states flatly. It was as if she was reluctant, not wanting to go on adventure in the Nether with her absolute favorite character, Steve. She swings her diamond sword in the air a few times, looking for different mobs present. Steve follows.

They jump over a slight ledge of netherrack, landing in the Nether fortress directly below. A withered skeleton approaches Alex. Reacting quickly, she throws it off of the bridge into the deep lava. 'Nice!' Steve thought.

"We better get moving. This Fire Resistance doesn't last for long," the redhead said, building a simplistic cobble staircase for an exit back up the ledge. "Come on, the blaze spawners are this way!" she motions for Steve to follow, who was staring at the ominous wave of zombie pigmen within the Nether fortress...

A ghast spits out a fireball, hitting the bridge far ahead of Alex and Steve. The section of bridge it hit fell apart, the sound of the crumbling brick making the two humans freeze in place. This part was definitely impassable.

"That...can't be good..." Alex looks around the Nether fortress, trying to think of an alternate route to get to the blaze spawners.

"Hey! This way!" Steve points the opposite direction. She looks back in disbelief.

"Seriously?" The wave of pigmen were heading towards them, and Steve wanted to go THAT way? Was he crazy?

"Well it's neither that," Steve points at the pigmen. "or that!" he points at the sea of lava below. Even though they had fire resistance, it would be an impossible task to make it to safety on time before the potion effects wore off.

'Well, I guess he has a good point.' Alex thinks. "Alex, come on!" Steve runs head-on for the zombie pigmen. Twirling his sword in his hand, he kicks the first zombie pigman back, causing him to tumble into the lava.

Steve continues to hack away at the crowd of enemies swarming him. What was Alex doing? "HELP!" he calls out, pinned by two pigmen. A third zombie pigman holds his golden sword to his neck.

Suddenly, an arrow pierces the third pigman. Next, the two pigmen pinning him down were shot in the head with a single arrow. Steve whips his head at the direction of the ammo. It was Alex.

She singlehandedly swipes and stabs the pigmen one by one. After slashing through the final pig mutant, she runs up to Steve, who picks up his diamond sword slowly. "This way..." he points to the inside of the tunnel. Alex ignores the danger of mobs within and nods.

Passing through the cobblestone "staircase", Alex got to thinking. She was actually CONCERNED for her rival, the ONLY other person she so dearly hated with her entire health bar and soul, and she CARED for him? Of all things she would've done, she would've pushed him off of the ledge at her first chance. Maybe she can take the Enderdragon on her own. She didn't need some silly amateur to get in the way of things. After all, he was only a newbie.

Right?

* * *

**Yey! Moar Alex n' Steve!**

**If you've enjoyed this story so far, PLEASE drop a review! All feedback is appreciated, and I'd like to know if it's worth continuing this story.**

**Thanks anyways!  
-DWalkthroughGuy**


	7. Chapter 7

Steve rounds the corner to the right. Alex couldn't help but wonder where Steve was going with his path. Were they going to get jumped by mobs? Were ghasts going to ruin their route again? Will their fire resistance effects run out too soon?

Without knowing the answer, Alex followed him anyways. They pass through a well of lava and a small nether wart farm. Climbing up the staircase, Alex puts up her bow, surprised to see that Steve wasn't as cautious. He simply ran up the staircase, only glancing back to check for intruders. Alex was entirely different. She took her time, keeping her string tense and her arrow ready. She slowly rotated around the room, checking for any slight tinge of suspicion.

"Come on! What are you waiting for?" Steve yells, already thirty blocks ahead. Alex rolls her eyes and catches up to him.

"You shouldn't be so careless about this!" Alex berates, relaxing her bowstring.

"And you shouldn't be so slow! We have to get there before we run out of time!" Alex only rolls her eyes again, simply pushing aside her feelings of rebellion to the back of her mind. They continue running down the hallway past ten, eleven intersections.

"Wh-where...where are we...going?" Alex manages to get out in between breaths. She puts her hands down on her knees, practically wheezing for air. Steve rolls his eyes, mocking Alex. PERHAPS Steve isn't so amateurish.

"What? You tired already? Come on! I only have a minute left of my fire resistance!" Steve rushes down the final intersection, finally seeing the look of another exit. This time revealing the other side of the Nether fortress. "Ha! There they are!" the human excitedly points down the nether brick structure, showing a collection of branch-offs and nether fences. "Spawners!"

Alex couldn't keep up. She just HAD to take a breather. "No...don't go...without me!" she coughs. Steve ignores her and rounds the large bridge corner, ready to take on the blazes he was about to encounter.

Unfortunately, the pigmen were still aggro.

A guard looks at Steve and snarls, his golden sword shining in the glowstone light. More pigmen join the staredown that was taking place, all in the ready position. The zombie pigmen were set to attack, and Steve knew it perfectly well.

He sprints down the bridge, his eyes set for the prize. The pigmen spring to action, as they begin their barrage of missed hacks and swings. Alex was watching from the distance, amazed at Steve's dodging.

Steve sprints ahead to his first blaze, who he pinned down and mercilessly hacked through. Good, just five more to go.

Steve rolls in a patch of soulsand to dodge the incoming fire. Immediately springing up, he swings at the blaze, who floats to the side to avoid the diamond blade.

Two more blazes join in. A fireball directly hits Steve in the leg, causing him to wince from impact, but not of fire. The other two land on his back, lowering his health even more. His resistance was about to run out, and Alex was not mucb of a help.

Grunting at Alex's laziness, Steve propels himself off of a nether brick ledge to spring high up in the air, givinghim enough force to critically damage onr of the blazes. Steve hops up and pokes the blaze above, which dropped another blaze rod.

'Ten seconds of fire resistance...' he thinks, taking on the blaze directly next to the one he just killed. He feels a sharp stab in the back, and his health drained down yet again.

"ALEX!" Steve screams at the top of his virtual lungs. He really needed her help just about now. Too bad he didn't bring a bow, or else this job would be done and over with a long time ago.

The last bit of his fire resistance faded away, and he was met with the licking flames of fire on his back. He couldn't help but scream in pain, causing his sword slashes to miss terribly. The blazes began to fly higher up, leaving Steve to suffer. Where was Alex?!

Getting desperate, Steve searches in his inventory that could put out the fire. Why didn't they bring any extra fire resistance potions? Steve looks up at the blazes in the sky, circling him as if they were taunting him. He kneels on the ground, melting down to his final three hearts...

* * *

An arrow flies up and hits a blaze right in the head. It falls straight to the ground right after. Alex?

Alex! She shoots the other blaze, but it misses, hitting a glowstone crystal instead. The hanging light disconnects from the netherrack ceiling, causing it to shatter on contact. The redhead chucks a splash potion at Steve.

Steve was going to die. 'It's a harming potion, isn't it? It's over...she won...' Steve hears the glass crack, anticipating his upcoming death.

Except he didn't die.

Steve opens one eyelid. Wait...he ISN'T dead? Instead of what he thought was his obvious, upcoming end, he got the feeling of regeneration.

She actually HELPED him.

Why?

* * *

Realizing what she had just done, Steve stands up and picks up the diamond sword he dropped. Alex was firing away at the other blaze that she missed. Hitting it, it falls down the fortress. Alex snags it before it falls into the sea of lava below. "Phew!" she exhales in relief.

A ghast flings a fire charge at the two. Reflexively, Steve tackles Alex to the ground, the hot projectile flying right above them. She looks up, a bit startled that Steve would actually do something to save her. Well, both of them were questioning that as well. Did they really want each other to live? Did they want the other to live in the same world? They didn't think so, but they did anyways. Maybe this was the unintentional start of a rather reluctant friendship.

"Come on! I have five blaze rods, you have one, right?" Steve asks. Alex holds up the blaze rod she caught. Nodding enthusiastically, Steve grabs her hand. "Then let's go!"

Alex yelps as Steve takes her all the way to the entrance of within the nether fortress. "Why did you have to drag me here?" she hisses, yanking her hand away from Steve's.

"Because that!" Steve points at the buzzing wave of blazes that were on their way to the entrance. "Now we need to go now-" An explosion blasts the two back against the wall. "What..."

A hole was carved out of the tunnel, and a ghast was looking straight into it. A zombie pigman with a leather helmet sat on top of it, seemingly piloting it around. "Go, go, go!" Steve instinctively grabs Alex's hand again, taking her down the halls. Blazes began to pour into the gaping hole, but luckily, the humans were far from them now.

"I think we're fine!" Alex says, letting go of Steve's hand.

"Oh...sorry..." He smiles sheepishly, putting a hand behind his neck. "Force of habit..." Alex rolls her eyes.

"Doesn't matter, let's go!" She runs ahead of him. Fire charges from the blazes shot down the hall like arrows, whizzing past them at incredible speeds. It was a miracle they weren't hit by any. =

"This way!" Alex rounds an intersection, getting away from the cloud of blazes in the main hall escape. "Hopefully we can find a way out of this!" But unfortunately, they weren't.

Instead, they were greeted with a group of zombie pigmen.

* * *

**Escape rush!**

**Bread!**

**Coolness!  
**

**Happy Memorial Day!**

**Thanks anyways!  
-DWalkthroughGuy**


	8. Chapter 8

Alex and Steve stare forward at the team of mobs, set to attack with their golden swords. "Well, now what?" Alex whispers. Steve grunts. He really didn't want to deal with this now.

"What do you mean, 'now what'? We're taking them on, of course!" Steve whips out the diamond sword Alex gave him and inched closer into the intersection. The pigmen were cautious, expecting him to make a wild stab.

Getting tired of the tensity, one of the pigmen rush forward, holding his golden sword high. Steve ducks, slashes the pigman's stomach and throws him to the floor behing him. "Anyone else wanna give it a shot?" Steve smirks. All of the pigmen make a rush for Steve, who takes them each in groups. Most of his swings hit multiple pigmen, but as more and more begin to surround him, Steve figures out that he couldn't hold out any longer. Why was Alex stalling in her attacks again?

"Hey...uh...need a little help here!" Steve yells, kicking back a zombie pigman far into two others.

* * *

All Steve saw was a blur of glass soaring above him. Smashing against the wall, Steve feels his health come back, and all of the pigmen surrounding him were hurt. Smiling, Steve continues to finish off the pigmen around him. Alex wasn't too far behind, but she did shoot from a distance, and her arrows were piercingly accurately.

Running up and stabbing the final pigman of the group, Alex and Steve regroup at the intersection. "Come on, this way. We have to avoid the blazes," Steve whispers. "But we have to keep moving." Steve crouches low and slowly moves forward into the next intersection.

The sound of clanking bones and floating blazes approach the two as they are met with a nether wart farm.

"Quick! Hide!" He whispers loudly, assuming a position behind a the staircase, opposite of the nearing enemies. Alex panics and looks around.

"What?! What do you- where do I..." at a last second resort, she scrambles over the nether bricks and hides with Steve, nearly tackling him to the ground.

The sound of floating blazes resonated around the room. Steve could also smell coal; the carbon of the wither skeletons also patrolling the junction. "Move over!" Alex hisses. Steve puts up his finger to his lips, glaring at Alex. "Scooch that way-"

A blaze exhales behind Alex. It fires three successive fire charges, all of which miss. A wither skeleton comes down the staircase. Making a swing at Alex, it gave her wither. She stumbles back a bit. Seeing that she was probably unable to fight, Steve steps in and uses the dead wither skeleton as a shield from the blazes. Their fireballs killed the skelly and also protected Steve.

Still carrying the dead rack of black bones, he circles the stairs, knowing that there were more. A skeleton stabs him from behind, causing him to yelp in pain. He slashes backwards as a reflex, but the withered skeleton ducks in time. Steve backs into a blaze, causing both of them to tumble.

Alex shoots the skeleton, causing it to topple over. The blaze was still a problem though. Steve's first thing was to drop the shield. Next, he dodges the line of fiery rocks from the blaze and takes his chance to hack at it. Killing it successfully, Alex and Steve continue down the hall.

* * *

They stalk down the hallway until they reach a well of lava.

Three pigmen and a blaze pass by none of them taking notice of Alex and Steve. Once they pass, Steve gives the go and rolls past the lava well and into the hall again. The indoor corridor eventually rose up to an upper floor. It was still a hallway that led to the right direction, but it was outdoors, naking it way more exposed and visible for the two.

Steve stops and thinks at the bottom of the nether brick stairs. "What are we waiting for?" Alex whispers, looking at the steps Steve was staring at.

"We have to run."

"What do you mean?"

"They'll all know we're there, and we have to run as fast as we can." Alex looks in her inventory.

"Well I don't have any potions of swiftness anywhere." Shaking his head, Steve shifts his sword in his hand.

"I guess we'll just have to go as fast as we can..."

* * *

Steve looks back at Alex, who was fletching an arrow. She nods. Nodding back, Steve begins to walk up. Halfway, he looks back. "Any potions?" He whispers. Looking in her inventory again, she brings out two potions of healing. "Thanks," he takes the two, putting away his sword for a while.

"I have onre more bottle of potion of regen," she whispers back.

"It's fine," Steve replies. Gripping the handles of the splash potions, he runs up the stairs.

He hurls them down the hall and whips out his diamond cutlass. The potions push back a few pigmen, some even falling down. Alex fires an arrow, successfully piercing two pigmen heads. 'Yet another flawless shot...' Steve thinks, stabbing a pigman right in the stomach. He rushes through two more pigmen, but feels a huge presence behind him.

His instincts were not lying.

The cloud of blazes that they were being chased by caught up to them. Alex shrieks, running into a zombie pigman as she witnesses the sight of what she thinks are most likely their deaths.

To make matters worse, a ghast was floating with Alex and Steve, soaring in its same direction and speed. It looked to be the same from earlier, as it had the leather-helmeted pilot on it, maneuvering the ghast around. The humans took notice of the mobs retreating as if they were evacuating a spot.

A spot for the ghasts, that is. "FIRE!" the pilot cries, eliciting an explosive charge to the section of fortress ahead of them. The fireball detonates on contact, sending pieces of brick and shrapnel flying everywhere. And, of course, a section of the bridge was missing.

Alex slips and slides down the hole, which led straight to lava below. Steve dives over and grabs her hand, mere pixels from letting go. "Steve...don't you dare..." Alex looks up, scrambling to find a pickaxe to pull herself up.

"I won't..." Steve grunts, trying to pull Alex up from the ledge. Blazes were floating over to them. Steve continues to struggle, trying to bring her up before the blazes reached their targets. Finally, Alex pulls out an iron pickaxe and stabs it into the bridge. Pulling herself up made recovering much simpler than letting Steve do it on his own.

The blazes stopped after a distance. Why was that?

"FIRE!" The ghast pilot cries again. Another fire charge flew by, hitting the chunk of fortress right behind Alex and Steve. Now they were trapped in! A blaze flies over to where Steve was at.

"Grab my leg!" Steve says to Alex, who gives him a questioning look but does so anyways. Steve runs to a blaze and catches hold of it, letting it whip around. As the yellow creature struggles to break free, it fires off a few fire charges of its own. Alex was a bit startled, but realized the situation and continued to grip to Steve's leg tightly.

Steve eventually gained control of the blaze. The blaze flips up and shoots three fire charges, aimed high for the netherrack ceiling. It was unbelievable, really. Just the two of the only humans who found that buckriding a blaze was the best way to escape the Nether.

The three charges hit a glowstone crystal chunk, which causes a part of it to shatter and the whole thing to fall down. The crystal lands on the ghast, which instinctively shoots an explosive fire charge. Blaze, Alex and Steve fly out of the way as the rock hits the netherrack cliff face and explodes, an entire section of gravel, soulsand and netherrack all tumbling down on top of the fortress path. It seemed as if every single mob, even the other blazes, were hit by the avalanche.

The flying trio just levitated for a second, shocked at what they had just done. The blaze flies to the rubble, lands so Steve and Alex could get off, and speeds away into the distance. Steve chuckles amd stretches, making his way past fallen netherrack back to the nether portal. Alex stares at him with disbelief as he says one thing:

"Let's go home, I'm tired."

* * *

**i liek bred**

**Thanks anyways!**

**-DWalkthroughGuy**


	9. Chapter 9

Alex steps out of the purple haze of the nether portal, shaking her head to get rid of the nauseating, swirling feeling. She sees Steve hunched over a crafting table, grinding the blaze rods to blaze powder. "You have ender pearls, right?" Steve asks, sensing Alex's presence without even looking.

"Well...yeah, yeah I do..."

"Great. Do you have those other two blaze rods?" She hands them over to Steve, who swiftly smashed them into fine grains. "Where are the pearls?"

Alex exits the nether portal room without a word, gesturing Steve to follow her. "Down to the basement, where I keep all my junk." Junk? Ender pearls were fun! Steve remembers once when he threw an ender pearl into a stack of TNT, where it would be sent soaring for miles until it hit the ground in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes he would risk dying for some ender pearls, which were pretty much one of his only playthings he's ever had.

Alex and Steve gently touch the third floor down, which looked pretty bare, save for the numerous chests everywhere of course. It looked as if the room was simply carved out of the ground and then used immediately after. Well, as long as it works, it's good, right?

Alex walks up to a stack of chests with the sign "MISC. MATERIALS" on the middle. Alex looks into one of the chests and found twelve ender pearls. "Just what we needed," she mumbles. Walking over to a crafting table, she asks for the blaze powder, where she began to craft them into Eyes of Ender.

* * *

"You know, I don't get you," Alex says after a moment of quick awkwardness. "You're so careless about things. You freakin' rode a blaze, snuck past the ENTIRE Nether defense and basically destroyed a major nether fortress, and you're not still surprised or anything?" Steve shrugs without saying anything. "I mean, you ran up staircases without checking to see if someone's going to shoot you."

"Well, it worked, didn't it?" Steve retorts, slightly annoyed by Alex's nagging about insignificant things. It was all in the past, wasn't it?

"What do you mean it worked? You could've gotten killed!"

"Well, I'm still here, aren't I?" Steve replies smoothly. Alex rolls her eyes.

"And I'm glad you are..." Steve raises an eyebrow.

"Why are YOU concerned about my existence? I thought we were strategizing how we could slit each other's throats, and you CARE I'm not dead?"

"It's not about that, it's about your careless attitude."

"And that is a problem because...?"

"Because you're gonna get yourself killed doing that, that's what!" Steve could obviously see she was slightly fed up with his silly antics, as she was repeating herself with the same argument. She finishes up the final Eye of Ender, putting them all in her inventory.

"So when do we begin?"

"We'll begin soon...just...maybe after tomorrow." Steve stares back.

"So, like, two days after?" She nods.

"Yes...two days after today..." she looks at the single, lone clock hanging on the wall. "We should get to bed..." Yawning, she enters the stream of water she calls her elevator. Steve joins after her, and they swim back up to the surface.

* * *

They walk down the left hallway quietly. "I better get going..." Steve steps toward the stairs before Alex stops him.

"Wait." Steve turns around.

"What?"

"Would...would you...like to stay here?" She yawns again, pandiculating in her diamond armor. Steve raises an eyebrow.

"Why would I?" he asks. It was as if she just proposed to him. She shrugs.

"I mean...I get pretty lonely here at night..." Steve looks her up and down. "What?! No...no no no, that's not what I mean! I don't want a cuddle buddy or anything stupid like that, I just need company-"

"See ya!" But Steve already left, shutting the double door behind him. Alex sighs; at least he left her armor and tools neatly in a pile. She goes down the stairs to get them so she could put them away.

What was she thinking? They've already established a rivalry, and she wanted to sleep in the same house? What for, anyways? She's lived every day with no one sleeping not even as close as the same room together, and she's been able to hold it together without a problem.

Or maybe it's just because she was new to the new player...

* * *

Steve walks down the gravel path Alex made that led to the village. "Oh no way, Ms. Alex. You are NOT my type, thank you very much!" He mumbles unintelligible thoughts in his mind until he reached the village, which was around midnight. The entire walk, Steve wasn't being attacked by any mobs, which was quite strange for it lasting from sunset to midnight.

Steve enters the local inn, pays whatever emeralds he had left to last him the night and flops on the bed of his room, simply glad that the day was over already. As he lies there, eyes on the birch wooden plank ceiling above him, he couldn't help but wonder: why did she ask for him to stay?

Was he attractive or something? Steve didn't get the answer, and he certainly didn't want to anyways. His mind thought that it was too busy thinking of other things than to worry about that question. It HAS been a while since Steve has ever entered the End, let alone fight and defeat an enderdragon. It must've been 1.6 when he did, and that REALLY was a long while ago.

Steve let his mind drift on and on about different things, all in hope for it to eventually tire itself out and fall asleep. But there was one thought he kept coming back to:

Alex.

* * *

The next day, Steve trudged back to Alex's house, where he saw her harvesting pumpkins in her mini pumpkin patch. "Hello," says Steve, walking past the metal entrance. Alex waves back.

"Hey."

"So why did you want to wait?" Steve asks.

"So we can get to enjoy this world for one last day..." she says, almost in a whisper.

"What do you mean?"

"Well what else would I mean, Steve? We're probably gonna die on this trip. I just feel like we need one more time to appreciate it, before it gets destroyed," she explains, lugging a pumpkin into her house. "Go prepare yourself for the adventure or something."

Steve smirks. 'With what?'

* * *

**I know this is kind of a boring chapter, but I needed a bridge between last chapter and the next. It felt...appropriate, necessary, required.**

**Please review and eat bread. Do both if you wish.**

**Thanks anyways!**

**-DWalkthroughGuy**


	10. Chapter 10

Steve enters the town with nothing but his iron sword and iron armor that he "traded". The food he bought yesterday definitely won't be enough to last the whole trip, that's for sure, and he still didn't have many things left to sell or trade. In addition, he only had a handful of emeralds left in his pocket.

Much to his surprise, Steve was able to buy 28 steaks with only four emeralds, which was enough for him alone. Just to be safe, he bought himself a few carrots for horses or for if he gets stranded. Of course, there really wasn't much to prepare. He would be leaving tomorrow, and he doesn't even know when he'll be back.

IF he'll be back.

* * *

Night rolled around quickly, but it wasn't much to Steve. The whole day he was fishing in a nearby lake with nothing much to do. Besides, he hasn't really been on this world for too long. Was it a week, maybe? Whatever it was, seven days didn't sound too big of an accomplishment to care about.

Steve could just find himself something better in the next world, and he wouldn't die from an obligatory adventure. He didn't want to fight a stupid monster; he wanted to build, mine, craft and survive. He wanted to do all of the things that he always did on his new worlds. 'I guess that's what makes this different' he thinks to himself, walking back to Alex's place. He went to give some surplus fish to her, just for the upcoming adventure.

"Hey! I got fish!" Steve enters the iron bar gate into the estate, but found that Alex was sitting down in the steps front of her home, longingly and softly petting her dog. Steve knew there was something wrong, and he definitely wanted to help her. With the bucket of fish in his hand, he slowly makes his way to Alex.

What was he thinking? He wasn't a therapist! He wasn't here for a counseling session! He was here to drop off a bucket of fish for tomorrow's adventure, plain qnd simple. Alex looks up from her wolf. Seeing that it was Steve, she looks down and goes back to petting her dog.

"Hey..." Steve couldn't help but say that slowly, as not to risk setting her off in anger, as Steve knew she was capable of doing. "I got some...fish for tomorrow..." Steve says, holding the bucket up. Alex looks up and smiles weakly.

"Thanks, Steve," she mumbles. Steve's heart cracked a little. He hated seeing people like this, even if it was his rival; but he still didn't want to risk anything, so he kept his mouth shut. He sets down the bucket on the bottom step. Smiling back, he makes his way back to the iron gates.

"Wait..." she calls back after him. Steve stops. She was gonna ask the same question, wasn't she? "Do you...ugh, never mind...just go..." Alex commands her dog to sit up, walking up the steps. Steve wasn't sure what he should do. He knows what she was going to ask, remembering clearly what she asked him the night before when he stepped out to leave.

Should he go for it?

Ah, the Nether with it. What does he have to lose? He turns around and faces Alex, who was still in her pitying expression. "Uh...Alex?" Steve begins, growing a bit nervous for some reason. "Umm...if there's something you wanted to ask, you can go ahead and ask away...if you want..." Alex stares back at him, not sure what he could be potentially plotting. She sighs and shakes her head.

"It's not important..."

"Is it, now?" Steve wasn't sure what he was doing now. Was he REALLY asking for a night with her? I mean, not in THAT sense, but one with the fact that she could wake up in the middle of the night and slit his throat if she really wanted to? Yeah, sure, sleep was certainly a vulnerability, and of course, one for her as well. Steve could do the same thing. Maybe she was testing the waters of his trust. She wanted to see if she could be trusted, and if she could trust Steve. It all made sense now.

Alex stares back in disbelief. 'Is he trying to be my friend?' she says in her mind, almost in disgust. She wasn't sure what he was offering but whatever it was, it didn't sound very trustworthy. "Umm..." Steve politely looks back expectantly, as if he was indirectly pulling the words out of her mouth. "I...would like it if...you...stayed with me here...tonight..." she says in small packets. "I mean...you don't have to if you don't want to-"

"I'd be fine with that," Steve replies without hesitation. What was he thinking?! This better not be something that'll last long. He doesn't even know how this one will go. 'I guess I'll have to get used to it...' he thinks, knowing that he'd have to sleep next to her at night when they adventure anyways.

Or maybe not? It was worth the tolerance nonetheless.

* * *

Alex continues to stare back at Steve. Confused, she wasn't sure if she should trust him or not, or if this was just a plot to kill her. After all, this was what she wanted, and maybe Steve was trying to lull her into a false sense of security, in which she almost fell into. She was smarter than this, and Alex even grinned when she figured out his plan.

"You know what? Never mind. You can go sleep with the villagers tonight!" Alex walks up the stairs, her dog following obediently behind her.

Now Steve was confused. He was just trying to help; he really was! He had no intention to harm her at all. Steve just stood there, feeling a little betrayed. He wasn't even sure if being a rival mattered anymore; he just really wanted to help out his fellow neighbor.

Steve shakes his head and walks away, the bucket of fish still in his hand. Alex shuts the double doors behind her and leaned against them, contemplating about her decision.

Was that really what she wanted?

* * *

**That was KINDA a filler chapter, I guess? I'm not sure what you guys think. But whatever, the adventure begins next chapter, so hurrah?**

**Bread.**

**Thanks anyways!**

**-DWalkthroughGuy**


	11. Chapter 11

Steve wakes up. It was still nighttime. Moonlight streamed through the open window panes, letting in a gentle breeze from the night. This definitely wasn't his hotel room; this place was furnished and fit for royalty! Bookshelves lined the wall, large chests with signs labeled with "GOLD" and "EMERALD" lined the wall in front of it. A redstone lamp with a lever sat on a nightstand next to the bed he was laying on. The other side of the bed had a nightstand too.

He looks over to his right and was slightly startled. It was Alex sleeping next to him! But Steve thought he went to the inn and slept there...

He hated to admit it, but she looked like an ANGEL when she slept. Steve looks back to his left, seeing a blood-stained iron sword. Without thinking, he takes the handle, looking back at Alex.

He could do it right now. He could reach over and just slit her throat, just as he envisioned it on the first day of meeting her. It was so simple; the chance was THERE.

Except he didn't.

He put the iron sword back on top of the nightstand, exhaling in relief. Surely he didn't feel bad about killing her, did he? No, he'd finish the adventure, THEN kill her...

Right? Was that what he REALLY wanted? Maybe all he really wanted was a friend, someone he could get along with and not worry about going to stupid places like a dog or having to feed constantly like a cow.

Steve snuggles back into the covers, still staring at Alex. She opens her eyes slowly and yawns, smiling when she saw Steve. "Why are you still up?" She asks airily, rubbing one of her eyes. All Steve could do was give a half-smile, not sure what to say about her right now. Alex looked different here. She didn't feel the same as the Alex Steve saw this entire time.

She looked beautiful.

* * *

Steve snaps awake, this time in his inn room. He was surprised that it was a dream, almost certain that the vivid vision was reality. It felt and looked like it for him, that's for sure.

"Well, now that's over with..." he gets up from the red bed he's been used to for the past two days and collects his things, readying whatever was to be happening next.

He moves down the gravel road, down over to Alex's house. 'When are we actually departing?' he thinks, wondering if any of it really mattered. Why would it matter? Wouldn't they both die anyways? Next time, he'd start up another life, somewhere different, and he would do the same thing all over again.

_Build, farm_, _hunt, survive._

Steve had always repeated that same mantra ever since he'd joined this wild, crazy universe. Every single time, he would do the exact same things. Same house, same farms, same plans. They would always be the same.

He guessed this would be the first "different" world he's had in ages.

Steve opens the iron bar gates, peering into the estate. "Alex?" he calls out, wondering if she was even at home. The house looked empty; without any sign of life inside. 'Maybe she already left?' he wonders.

Suddenly, a horse clops behind him. "There you are!" a familiar voice remarks. Steve whirls around, finding Alex, except this time she was suited in diamond armor.

"I thought you were here..." Steve begins. Alex shakes her head.

"It doesn't matter. Do you have everything?" she questions him, completely ignoring his previous statement. "Come on, let's go!"

Steve felt a bit rushed, but he went over to the stable instinctively. "Can I use one of your horses?"

"Yeah yeah. Now get going!" Alex urges. Why was she so urgent?

Steve had all of the food and extra tools in his inventory. On the horse, he dons the armor set, commanding the horse to follow Alex.

"You ready?"

"Yeah."

"Good, follow me, I guess." Alex calls for her dog to come with them.

"What'd you call your dog?" Steve asks casually.

"Why do you wanna know?" she spits back harshly.

"I...I don't..." Steve falls silent. By now, he thought he would've gotten used to her being that way: on and off anger. Maybe he needs even more time. Everything he needed to wait for got him anxious. Steve wasn't the kind of guy to wait around; he was impatient, unable to wait for long periods of time for waiting on one specific, tedious task. This was only different if he didn't have something else to do or think of.

Alex throws one of the Eyes of Ender, letting it float in the air before sinking and landing in her hand. "This is gonna take a while..." she moans, tossing it up in the air again.

* * *

After half a day's worth of tossing the Eye of Ender in the air on horseback, Alex stops her horse, causing Steve to stop his. "It's getting dark," she says tiredly. She stretches her arm, earning a few satisfying clicks after the whole day throwing with the same arm. "Did you bring any beds?" She looks back at Steve expectantly. Why would he have any equipment?

"What? All I got were things I need for myself. Why would I have YOUR bed?"

"Well, MAYBE if you didn't just think for YOURSELF, WE could be sleeping!"

"The sun hasn't even started to set yet!"

"I don't care! All I'm saying is that we need a bed right now, and YOU don't have one!"

"Well you never gave me a shopping list!"

"And YOU never thought of it?" Steve stops. He couldn't go on with arguing like this. It seemed like every single little thing something wrong happened, even if it was Alex's fault, it would all be blamed on Steve. How he wished to attack her right now...

Huffing, Steve steps down from the saddle, placing a fence post on the ground and leashing his horse onto it. "I'll MAKE one for you if it makes you feel any better..." Steve takes out his iron sword and walks into the unknown forest. Before he goes, he places a torch on a tall birch nearby, just so he could find his way back.

A torch on one hand and his sword on the other, Steve used the burning coal as his only source of light in the rapidly dimming forest. He was shocked that the sun was setting already. Just a minute ago, Steve and Alex were arguing, and now it was setting.

A light tint of dark blue beset the land, signaling the takeover of the night. Steve sees the stars beginning to illuminate the night sky, the bright half moon nestled in the horizon. He had to find a sheep fast before it got too dark. Picking up the pace just a bit, Steve eyes a flock of chickens, hunting a few for later.

As he conquers another hill, there was still no sheep to be seen. 'There has to be one somewhere...' Steve thinks, holding his torch high. He looks back at the moon, which is rising even higher by the second. He slides down the hill and reenters the forest, fearlessly searching for a sheep.

The moon was at a forty-five degree angle in the sky. 'Halfway till midnight!' Steve marvels. Has he really been out for this long? By now, Steve couldn't see the torch he placed. Hopefully, Alex wouldn't come following him.

And just when he was about to turn around, he hears the _BAA _of the sheep.

As well as the ambiance of the mobs.

* * *

**Spooky I know. You should eat some bread. It'll help.**

**Thanks anyways!**

**-DWalkthroughGuy**


	12. Chapter 12

Steve had to act quick. The sheep were right over the river, but so were the mobs. He hops over the hill, landing in the river. The splash obviously attracted the zombies and spiders, causing them to jump into the water as well.

'Bad idea, bad idea!' Steve thought, but it was too late. He has to fight off every mob he sees, and it wouldn't be easy getting over dying all because he needed to get sheep. It also wouldn't be easy surviving in the first place.

An arrow flies above Steve's head, landing directly in the dirt behind him. Next, a spider lunges at him, but Steve blocks it, letting it drop back into the water. All Steve needed was the sheep. He needed three wool and he'd be done with it; no mobs, no puzzles, no challenges. Just a bed to sleep on and maybe a shelter to relax in, avoiding the monsters in this world.

Steve slashed his way through multiple zombies and spiders, all while wading through surprisingly deep water. He reaches a patch of clay, causing his left foot to sink. Quickly jerking it away from the muddy complexion, he continues. An arrow hits his armored chestplate, reducing a bit of his health.

His iron boots touch sand, and Steve powers through three skeletons, just to get rid of the pesky things. Smiling in relief, Steve slaughters three sheep, the third dropping two wool. He picks up the wool and runs backwards, but now he not only had to wade across the river, bit he also had to climb over the hill on the other side.

A skeleton spawns a few meters to the east, shooting an arrow landing right in his right thigh. Yelping, but trying to muffle it as best he can, he jumps back into the water. His walk turned into a limp, and the mobs began to near him. Steve swats away a spider and hacks at a zombie. All of a sudden, he hears a bark in the distance.

* * *

Steve hacks at anither zombie and lets a creeper explode inside the river before he turns around. A pack of wolves came running over to the numerous skeletons standing in shore. Fortunately for Steve, there are only two zombies left to take care of. After that, Steve walk to the pack of wolves, who have just finished off the last skeleton. Gnawing on a skeleton bone, one of them look up at the human, barking non-aggressively at him; he barked almost out of casual greeting, like a "Hey, how's your evening?"

Steve smiles, handing out a piece of steak to the dog. He sniffs it, then grabs it out of Steve's hands. This time, Steve holds out a bone of his own to tame him. He hands him another bone, and he gives him a collar. 'My own dog!' He thinks happily. "Come on!" He commands, trying to get him to stand. Instead of going to Steve, it slowly backs away into the pack. He was tamed, right? Why won't he follow Steve?

"Come on," Steve says a bit more sternly. The dog instead stays put and lies down with his pack. "He needs to be with family..." Steve finally remarks after a minute of trying to figure out the situation. It made sense, but it wasn't normal. Every dog or ocelot Steve tamed did as told, but this was different. Again,

_different._

Understanding the logic, Steve throws a steak in the air for the other wolves and walks back the other direction, getting the wool he needed. When he reached the top of the hill, he realized how Alex might've been pulling his leg the entire time; perhaps she just wanted to throw him in a loop, or possibly let the mobs kill him.

This wasn't in his mind before. Maybe this whole time she might've left him behind. Yes, maybe she wanted him to get lost and never find her or the village again. Steve himself didn't know where to go back to the village, and he obviously wouldn't know where Alex would've went off to. Anxious to get back to his post, Steve begins to take on a brisk jog. By now, the moon hung high in the middle of the sky. 'Midnight' Steve noted, picking up the pace even more. Now he was almost sprinting.

He passes by every conceivable mob spawnable in the forest, lucky that he dodges each of their attacks. Unfortunately, his hunger was depleting like a chicken's health. He couldn't stop, not now, where practically every skeleton was shooting him, when every spider was lunging at him, when every zombie was swiping at him, and when every creeper was hissing at him. It was a particular task he's never had to do in so long. Running through a forest of mobs at midnight seemed like something noobs would have to do when they explored too far out a bit too late in the afternoon.

* * *

After thirty more seconds of running, Steve skidded to a stop. A lake of lava was right in front of him, and mobs were closing in. There was no way to go around, and there he didn't have any fire resistance potions. He either had to go forward or back. Time was ticking away as each consideration he thought of led the monsters to one step closer to him. It was absurd: there he was, hunting for sheep, then suddenly trapped between a wall of deadly mobs and a lake of lava.

Steve searched in his inventory and found a stack of five dirt. Placing one in the lake made it sink down to the bottom. He was unsure how deep the bottom was, but he continued to place blocks until it hit the surface, where he used up all of his dirt blocks. He jumps on the dirt, giving three more blocks of extra space from the mobs that had melted rock in the middle. He feels the hot air above the lava surround his boots and heat up the iron. A skeleton shot an arrow, where Steve ducked and let the projectile land in the lava behind him.

Steve needed to get out of there, but really, he just dug, or built, himself into a hole. Skeletons will probably shoot him and shove him into the lake, where he would meet his inevitable death.

But maybe it isn't inevitable? Steve only had one thing left to do to survive. Building all of his strength (and courage), he runs and leaps off of the dirt, back in the forest. He pushes through the wall of mobs and runs to the right, where he could avoid the arrows and monsters.

Steve reequips his iron sword, still running around the lake of lava. A zombie bites him, causing him to hop near the hot substance. Steve turnes the tables and shoves the zombie into the lava, where the former melts and sinks to the bottom.

A creeper behind him explodes, luckily dealing little damage to Steve. The ground he detonated waa filling up with lava, however. A skeleton shoots him right in the head, where he falls down on his stomach. Zombies and spiders surrlund him, but he slashes them all back with his sword. Steve takes his fourth block of wool and ignites it near the lava lake. He takes the block and flings it an oak tree.

Fire erupts in a leaf block as Steve hacks at multiple zombies at a time. Eventually, he got rid of enough to the point where he could safely run away. The fire behind him spread to three trees, completely engulfing them in flames and attracting more mobs to the smell of fomaldehyde attracting to the burning wood and leaves instead of Steve.

Steve runs deeper into the night, unsure of what to expect next.

* * *

**Yey he's alive!**

**And so is Demoman and His Friends' Silly Pirate Adventure! More chapters of that are being produced, so if you're looking for that, I already have a chapter out!**

**Thanks anyways!**

**-DWalkthroughGuy**


	13. Chapter 13

Steve continues to run until he meets a hill. 'I remember this; I must be getting close' he thinks, watching his environment for any other mobs. Steve looks over to the west, the moon beginning to set over a layer of trees in the distance. 'Maybe Alex is having trouble holding out mobs too' he thinks, slightly hurrying back to his post. The thought of her deserting Steve or throwing him in a nearly deadly loop caused him to go insane. 'Surely, she wouldn't do that, right?' But then immediately thought otherwise. After all, they were still rivals. She could've easily done so without any remorse or regret.

The bright layer of white sky covered the horizon of the west while the yellow and pink horizon colored the east. The tip of the sun also began to rise, causing the leaves of the trees and flowers to glisten in the morning sunlight. Steve was up all night looking for a bed so he could sleep. He lost his first bed in the Nether somewhere, but wherever it could be, it's probably gone forever. Luckily, Steve went out of his way to kill sheep and risk his life so he could get a bed for Alex. Even though they would probably be sleeping in the same bed, or Steve would be sleeping on the dirt, it was something to sleep on nonetheless so Alex wouldn't get mad at him.

Steve sees the bright light of the torch he set on the tree, chuckling tiredly. He made it out alive! He couldn't believe it too; such a simple task complicated with a lake of lava and night monsters. Steve stumbles over to the lit tree, eating one of his steaks for breakfast. His second sight after the torch were the horses, glad that they were alive the whole night.

Then his third sight, which was not his happiest.

The grin on his face immediately dropped. Alex stands up, laughing at Steve hysterically. There behind her were two beds, each the exact same kind and wool. "I didn't know you would do it, but you went out and got sheep! You were gone all night you know, and you should've seen the face you had when you stormed off. Let me tell you, it was-"

Alex cut herself off as she sees Steve. His iron armor was slightly charred and badly damaged, add to that two arrows sticking out from it and the glaring expression on his face. "I. Almost. Died." Was all he could say. Alex could only stare back. Before she could say anything, Steve continues, "and I think I might have caused a forest fire. Do you have ANY idea that I did this for YOU? I went out there the WHOLE night to get wool for YOUR bed, and this was...was a TRICK?"

Steve throws the three blocks of wool at her. She throws up her arm to block it, but she didn't seem to mind; all she had to do was stare at Steve's near-death complexion. Alex gulps, not saying a word.

* * *

A moment of silence passes before the two did anything. The sound of burning zombies and skeletons echoed throughout the forest in a quiet cacophony. White smoke from the forest fire rose in the air in a billow, almost like a smokestack from a factory. Bats squeak in the distance, and the morning sun shines through the trees.

"Get the Ender Eyes..." Steve mumbles, mounting his horse. Alex swallows dryly, mounting her horse as well. "Lead the way, captain!" he raises his voice sarcastically, causing her to cower down a bit. Taking out an Eye of Ender, she tosses it into the air, not minding that she would be doing this all day today. Steve kept his gruff expression, letting his horse slowly clop after Alex.

Just as she expected, Alex continued this routine all morning. The break happened when it hit noon.

She throws it in the air, her hand ready for it to come back down again before it comes shatters in mid-air, shards of it falling everywhere. Alex yelps and shields her head in surprise. Steve merely looks up. "Well, too bad we don't have any more," he says blankly.

"What..." Alex begins.

"It'll be fine. A default End portal usually has some Eyes of Ender already inside." Steve interrupts. "Just pull out another one and keep going." An hour of this passes, and eventually they reach a desert, where the grass abruptly cut off where the desert started.

* * *

Another hour in the desert passed by, and the heat really got to all of them: Alex, Steve, Alex's dog and the horses. "The horses need rest. Is there a well around here?" Steve asks. "You're the one in the front."

Ignoring Steve's second statement, Alex says "I can't see one. Maybe there's a lake here." After what she did to Steve, she couldn't help but feel guilty for it, and even now, every action that was her fault was guilted by her. She couldn't forgive herself if she tried.

The horses began to slow down, even after they both fed them a bundle of wheat or a carrot. The two horses desperately needed water, and they need it now. Who knows how long they'll last without it? Not to mention how far away something like an ocean or forest lake could be, and the constant heat sapping away energy and dehydrating them with every step.

Another hour passes, and the humans were just as hot and tired. Alex takes off her helmet, and Steve removes all of his armor, compaining that it was too hot and stuffy.

The sun reaches mid-afternoon when Alex sees something blue in the distance.

* * *

"Hey...hey! What is that over there?" She points to a small body far ahead. "Is that water?!" She nearly shouts, her voice slightly hoarse and throaty.

Steve shakes his head. "That's probably just a mirage, Alex."

"A mirage?! It's the only hope we have left!"

Steve mumbles again. Who knows how the heat affected her brain? Steve knew in experience that most of these "bodies of water" are mere reflections of atmospheric imbalances, if he remembered correctly.

The horses pass the lake, avoiding their true only hope.

* * *

**In other words, they passed a legit lake.**

**On a non-story based note, I apologize for not updating this. I was busy getting the sequel (not of this story) Stuck with You done, sorry if you were a little disappointed in not having your daily dose.**

**Thanks anyways!**

**-DWalkthroughGuy**


	14. Chapter 14

Steve and Alex were sweltering in the hot sun, and the lack of water wasn't helping. They haven't passed a single lake in what felt like miles, but really only half of one since they passed the lake that Steve dismissed as a meager mirage.

It didn't seem as much of a surprise when Alex saw something else half an hour later. "Hey...what...what is that...a well?" Alex says, panting loudly. She points at another object in the distance. Steve didn't even bother trying to object. What did they have to lose?

The desert structure was under a pile of sand, suspended by thin air. Steve always had fun playing with those, punching a sand block and causing the rest to fall...

The two send the horses on their way towards the water source, not caring if it was poisonous. Whatever it was, they needed it. Water was water, and they wanted any drop or source of it. They both arrive at the sandy shadow, nearly falling off of their horses from exhaustion. Practically crawling to the lakes, they dip their hands into the cool water and take laps at it. Alex's dog joined in with them too.

An arrow flies in the air and hits Alex in the face. "AAGH!" she shouts, gripping the flown stick. "STEVE!"

Steve was still on the ground lapping the water when he looks up. "Huh?"

"What was that-" Alex stops herself and looks up at the direction of the arrow. It certainly wasn't from Steve, that's for sure. Alex draws her diamond sword as she sees that it was a skeleton hiding in the shade of the sand. "I'M GONNA STRANGLE YOU!"

Alex dives into the water, dipping under the surface to avoid the skeleton's barrage. Once she got in pouncing position, Alex leaps out of the water and swats the sword at its legs. The skeleton falls back, its ribs hitting the sand wall. The fragile structure began to vibrate for a tick.

Alex stops. She knew what would happen if the frangible sand were to ever collapse.

* * *

"ALEX!" Steve yells as she looks up, seeing the sand blocks falling one by one. The sand blinds Alex as she begins to suffocate under the surface.

"Alex!" Steve panics, taking out a shovel and digging furiously at the spot where Alex was in. He continues to violently shovel out the sand, block by block, but found no sign of Alex. She couldn't hear her mumble or any muffled screams. Steve continues without running out of energy, knowing how short of a time you got to dig yourself out of sand before you suffocated, especially in Hard difficulty.

Steve digs further down until he sees a hand sticking out of the rubble. Steve takes a hard grip. "Hold tight!" he grits his teeth as he pulls up the hand.

'That's gonna detach it...' Steve thought. He digs further down near the hand until he saw a glint of diamond helmet, fortunately not taking too long. Steve tries to pull it again, and this time, successfully pulls out a gasping Alex, coughing uncontrollably and spitting out sand.

Steve sits back on the sandy hill, relieved that she hadn't died. Alex continues to cough as she looks up at Steve rather gratefully, as he was holding a bottle of water. "I filled some up while you fought that skelly," he says. Alex smiles genuinely at him, grabbing the bottle, swishing the water before she spat it out and clearing out the sand.

"Thank you...Steve," she says breathily, coughing in between. Steve smiles back.

"No problem..." he replies. They were both simply relieved that Alex was alive, and that Steve had packed water.

* * *

The two get back on their horses, their minds still whirling with the momentum of that moment. They were silent the whole trip, but they were filled with a positive emotion. The horses clopped on after a long drink from the remaining bit of water left, and they went on towards the Eyes of Ender.

Another Eye of Ender shattered, taking both of them by surprise. "Another one down..." Alex mumbles, catching Steve's attention. He was falling sleepily as the night approached, remembering how he didn't sleep at all last night.

Steve ignores the broken Eye and looks forward, seeing the large jungle ahead. "Well then..." Steve says to himself, seeing a horizon full of jungle trees. Vines draped every single plant that Steve could see, and leaves were the primary jungle floor, save for a few patches of ground which let a few flowers sprout.

"That's new..." Alex looks up at the jungle, just as equally shocked at the sudden biome change.

"We should sleep ON the trees," Steve suggests. "You know, climb the vines to the top and set up a camp there." Alex agrees, not even thinking about pranking Steve again. Even now, after he had subliminally forgiven her by saving her from suffocation without reluctance, she still felt guilty of having him risk his life all for nothing. They weren't even sure how much the forest fire he started had developed. Hopefully, it didn't spread to the jungle; unfortunately, there was no way of knowing for sure.

They find a suitable looking jungle tree and grab hold of the first line of vines on the trunk. Steve was up first, where he tied a lead to the horse, and then tied that to a fence post. Steve continues to climb the jungle vine with Alex sticking close behind. She showed signs of apprehension, and as Steve neared to about the halfway point of the trunk, he began to hear whimpering below him.

That couldn't be Alex SCARED, could it? Steve looks down and sees Alex gripping tightly. Over time, she ended up being considerably far below Steve. She was glancing down every few seconds, always letting out a little wince when she did. Steve stares at her slowly making up the vine.

"Uh, you okay down there?" Steve asks. Alex looks up, her face screaming 'HELP ME', but she didn't make a sound. Alex shakes her head hesitantly.

"N-No, I'm fine down here..." she tries to say in a cocky, overconfident tone, but her fear drowned out any emotion she would ever try to portray.

"You sure?"

"Yeah..." Alex slowly makes her way up another block, unsure if she was ever going to make it up to the top. Steve climbs down a few blocks to help Alex, when she was met with a break in the vines. For her to get up, she had to jump up another block; this was something she certainly did not want to do. "Uhh..."

"Come on, Alex. All you have to do is jump. Just one block. Don't worry, my hand is right here," Steve reassures. His right was outstretched towards her while his left was hanging from a vine. Alex looks back at the ground, then back up at Steve, who had a serious expression on his faith. "It's fine. Trust me, just this once." Alex kept hesitating and looking down, but Steve had all the patience in the world. Alex continued to stand still, not sure what to do. It wasn't that she didn't trust him.

It was more that she didn't trust herself.

* * *

**Sorry! Sorry! I'm still here!**

**Although it has been more than a day, I am posting chapters, so don't freak out if I hadn't posted a chapter within a 24-hour period. Some have contacted me asking if my story was dead when I didn't post a chapter in one of my stories in two days. You all know who you are...**

**Thanks anyways!  
-DWalkthroughGuy**


	15. Chapter 15

Alex looks up, she sees the night sky beginning to rise, and the stars of the night began to dot the heavens above. Clouds rolled over with peaceful silence. Small bats squeaked silently in the distance, resonating in a comfortable harmony, like a whippoorwill.

All of this was ruined by the fact that Alex was 50 blocks high in the air.

* * *

As she continues to debate whether she should trust Steve or not, Steve meanwhile was beginning to run low on patience. "Come on, Alex. I don't have all night..." She reaches up and tries to grab the vines, but her grip wouldn't be strong enough for her whole body. Shutting her eyes tightly, she jumps up in the air, her hand reaching for Steve.

"GAH!" she yelps, slipping on the tree trunk. Steve catches her hand, which was the only thing supporting her. Steve couldn't hold her like this for long, not with a single vine keeping the two suspended.

"Come on, Alex! Just push yourself up onto this vine! Come on!" Alex was hyperventilating at this point, but she was frozen in place. Swaying in the wind, Steve could feel the fibers of the vine beginning to rip apart slowly... "ALEX!"

She swings around and grabs on to the vine on the trunk, and Steve releases, gripping onto a new patch. Alex was breathing heavy, but at least she was holding onto a vine. She was still pretty nervous, but they were getting close to the top.

Alex pulled herself together and eventually climbed up slightly closer to Steve. Even if it sounded impossible, Alex pushed herself and kept going. She knew that there was no going back, but there definitely should not be any letting go. Not here, not at this time.

Steve reaches the canopy of the jungle tree and smashes open a hole in the leaves. After pressing it down enough, Steve makes a staircase of leaves leading up to the top. A minute after, Alex scrambles up on the topiary, joining Steve.

"Did you want dinner-" Alex hugs him tightly.

"Thank you so much, Steve..." she whispers, tears streaming down her cheeks. "You...you saved me...twice..." Steve was speechless. He didn't know Alex was capable of this kind of emotion, and certainly not to this extent and fervor. Nevertheless, they were still rivals at heart; did they just having a free day for both of them? Alex caught sight of this dilemma and immediately vouchered for it to end tomorrow, from the moment she wakes up. "I'm...I'm scared of...heights...could you sl-sleep...next...to-"

"Alex, that's fine with me. Just don't try to pull anything stupid." She nods, happy that he had permission.

If only she could bring herself to it.

Alex sets down two beds next to each other. "Do you think it'll rain?" Steve asks out loud. Alex shrugs.

"I'm not sure."

"What if it does?" She shrugs again, her mind too busy about getting back to opposition. It sounded immature to her, but it was the best thing they could to separate themselves. Steve rolls over to the other side of the bed and begins to fall asleep.

She didn't mean to put the beds so close together. Was this...what she tried to do two nights ago? She tried to ignore it. 'He's an enemy. Don't think about that! He's trying to take the world...' she let her mind think abour it, but it always retracted from those thoughts. Her brain didn't...WANT to.

Alex looked back at Steve, turned over and slept.

* * *

The following morning, Steve lies in bed on his side and back to Alex, looking back at the setting moon and surrounding jungle. He felt something and looked down. Alex had wrapped her arms around Steve.

Well, that was totally unexpected.

Steve didn't mind, and spent a few minutes for her to wake up while he looks back at the peaceful scenery. The vast skies were brightening, and he could feel the cool morning air being pierced by the rising sunlight. He turns to his side one more time to watch the sunrise, but his eyes were caught up with Alex. Whatever was in that dream definitely carried on to real life. Was he dreaming now?

He can't see the sun now, not yet at least. She feels her stirring awake and tells his eyes to close, but they just wouldn't. They would remain open regardless of what Steve told them. Alex opens her eyes and moans a bit while stretching, and stops when she realizes who was staring back.

They continued like this until the bats were waking up. Steve rolls over and gets out a fresh steak. "Do you want breakfast?" Steve asks awkwardly. Alex sits up, nodding her head, swatting away whisps of orange hair from her face. Steve hands Alex a steak. "You still afraid of heights?" He asks, eager to get back down to the ground as quickly as possible. She shrugs, eating a bit of the meat.

"I mean...well..."

"It's fine if you do, I don't mind-"

"Yeah, I'm...still...I'm still afraid of heights..."

"Acrophobia? Well, you're in Minecraft. I'm surprised you're not used to that." Alex does a little cute glare, not one with much anger, just light frustration; it was such a light glare, it didn't feel as if it was sincere, dampering her true intentions. 'She's falling away from rivalry...' Steve thinks, looking back down to the ground.

'There it was' Alex thought. The perfect opportunity to strike; she could easily run up and kick him down this tree, where he would fall sixty blocks to his inevitable death.

Surprisingly, she brought herself up to it, and began walking up to him.

He turns around. "I think someone stole-" Steve catches Alex behind him. "Hi?"

Alex looks back, blushing. She didn't know why, though. "Never mind..." she turns away, breaks and takes the beds and makes her way down the vine surprisingly without difficulty. Perhaps she was too distracted in her mind to think of the dangers of height.

"What was that all about?" Steve says to himself.

"It's nothing..." Alex says back, watching the vines she gripped on to as carefully as possible. Steve jumps off the topiary, grabbing on to a vine, stopping the fall. There was no way she was getting herself to do that.

Until she reaches the break in the vines.

"Just do what I do. Let yourself drop, and hold onto a vine!" Steve instructs. He lets go of the vine he was holding on to, passing the one block break and catches a vine under it. Alex does the same right after, landing on the block next to Steve.

"Wasn't that hard," she comments, smiling. They both continue to crawl down until they reached the jungle floor.

Only to see their horses and dog missing.

* * *

**Alright. That's about it so yeah. Keep it cool and keep eating bread. I really like bread. A lot.**

**Thanks anyways!**

**-DWalkthroughGuy**


	16. Chapter 16

Steve was expecting Alex to lash out at him with blame, subconciously knowing that Steve had to be the one setting it up. But instead, this time, all she could do was stare at the fence posts where they tied leads to leash the horses and Alex's dog. What could've happened to them?

"Well, there's no use looking for them. Might as well keep going," Steve says, urging Alex to get going with the Eyes of Ender. All she could do was stand there, absolutely appalled at what just happened. They were expensive horses, and even worse, the armor and saddle costed even more. Even with all of her extensive mining equipment and wealth, Alex was strict about her trading; she watched every emerald with a sharp eye.

And to see all of that go to waste? She didn't feel any anger, or disappointment, or sadness. Alex simply felt sick to the stomach. She wasn't letting whoever did this get away. Oh no, she wanted to get her hands on them and mangle them apart, limb from limb. She wanted what she lost, and she needed to make sure whoever did it got justified, regardless of how harsh that was.

Without a word, Alex got out her Eyes of Ender and chucked one in the air, catching it midair as it fell. Steve was so nonchalant about the whole situation, and Alex was afraid that same nonchalance was going to get him killed, just like in the Nether.

They walk towards the direction of the ender eye. After climbing over a hill of leaves and vines, the two see what looked like a tented area. It had a small fire in the middle, circled with wool tents that were held up by two fence posts. On one post to the far left, Alex spotted the two horses. Even though she didn't see the dog anywhere, she was surprised to see that the horses or their armor weren't removed. In fact, all they did was relocate the horses.

"Get low!" Alex hisses. Steve gets down on the bush they were both standing on. Steve looks at her, slightly confused. They both go down on their stomachs, overlooking the encampment.

"Why are we lying down?" Steve whispers. Alex takes out her diamond sword and points it towards the horses.

"Our horses are there, and there are...people here..." the redhead replies. Why were there people? Were there more than just Alex and Steve? Was there a whole world of people out there, just not discovered yet? Perhaps the uncharted sections of the map held entire empires and civilizations, and all the two had to do was find the right time and resources to do it.

"So...do we kill them?" Steve asks. Alex nods, her malicious mile affirming it. "Can't we just ask them? I'm pretty sure they didn't see us. They just took two lost horses-"

"What civilized villager would take tied horses and dogs? If they were armored, saddled and given a name tag, I'm very sure it would belong to someone. They stole it on purpose!" Alex put name tags on the horses?

"I'll go ask them..." Steve shakes his head and stands, walking down the leafy hill on the way to the encampment below. He wasn't sure why Alex was being so cautious about everything.

Eyeing someone in a tent cooking fish over a fire, Steve walks over to the person. She looks up from her work and freezes. She looks him up and down. It was if Steve was a language she was trying to decipher; the foreigner was looking at Steve in different angles. Speaking in a foreign language, she calls in three other tribe members, who all armed and pointed their bows at Steve.

"Uh-" One of the tribe members with a bow silences Steve with a crude hiss. Steve puts his hands up. Another tribe member, adorned with golden armor and appearing to be elderly, walks up to Steve calmly, not seeing him as a threat. Steve assumes that he must be the chief.

"None of us except me speak English. What do you want?" he says, gripping the handle of his diamond sword he had holstered in his leggings.

"We-...I just want my two horses back," Steve replies, his stands still up. "And the dog...where's the dog?"

"What dog?" the chief looks at Steve as if he didn't know what he was talking about.

"The dog. With a lime green collar?" he asks again hoping that they haven't killed it yet. The chief shakes his head.

"We've had those horses and dog for long time now. Go. Go home please," he says, urging him away. But Steve wouldn't budge, not leaving without the horses. Frowning, Steve took a step forward.

"I'm not leaving until I take those horses! I'm not wanting a fight, and I don't want any trouble. All we want are the horses and dog!" Steve raises his voice, surprising the other tribe members, who had bows aimed for Steve's head. They all shifted in their spots, tensing up as they expected him to swing at him with a sword.

The chief smiles. He stole the horses and dog, and he has the audacity to SMILE about it? What was this guy thinking? This guy definitely wasn't getting away with this. The chief begins to walk away from Steve, but the latter walks towards him, taking out his diamond sword. "Hey, you! I'm not leaving until you give me the animals!" Tribe members gathered round as they watch the tribal members point the bows at Steve. Other warriors walk in the scene, armed with crude iron swords and iron chestplates.

"What I tell you? Go home and don't come back!" the chief replies sternly. Steve begins to raise his sword at the chief, saying louder,

"What did I tell you?! Do you listen, old man?! I said I'm not leaving WITHOUT THE ANIMALS!" Bowstrings tensed and swords were held at the ready. The chief puts his hand up, signaling the others to lower their weapons.

"Then we will fight for them." Was this guy serious? Steve rolls his eyes.

"Look, all I want are the horses you took! Do you think I'm that ignorant? I want the horses. And dog. That's all I ask for! Look, I know those are our horses, and I want them back!" The chief raises an eyebrow.

"Who is our?" he asks, knowing that Steve was alone. Steve squints his eyes.

"People you don't want to mess with..." he says in a low voice, making Alex appear more numerous than she is.

"Still doing fight..." the chief whips out his diamond sword, and Steve takes out his.

"Oh it's on..."

"I will be guided by the heavens and Chiefs above me-" the tribe leader was interrupted by an arrow, landing right in his head.

* * *

**HEADSHOT  
+50**

**Thanks anyways!  
-DWalkthroughGuy**


	17. Chapter 17

Bows fired at Steve. Why has he the perpetrator?! Did they not see where that arrow could've come from? Defnitely not from him! He didn't even have his bow in his hotbar.

A few arrows hit and stuck to Steve as he runs to the nearest tent. He enters one, looking around for some kind of escape. Another arrow from the outside stabs his foot, causing him to wince in pain to stifle a scream. Using his diamond sword, he slits open an exit on the other side. Steve couldn't handle them all on his own.

Maybe Alex can. Steve considered running off without her...

But...he couldn't.

He had to check on her, to know if she was okay, if she was ALIVE. Steve eats a steak and runs on the side of the tents, where the fight was the least dense. Alex was still shooting at the tribesmen, trying to hold them back. Steve runs behind one and swings at his neck, killing him instantly. "Alex! Get the horses!" He yells.

Alex looks down and nods. She comes down from the bush, taking the route that she thought had the least activity. Steve stayed close to her, but the tribesmen outnumbered them heavily. There was no way in Nether that Steve could kill all of them.

The warriors wield iron axes instead of their bows. Now that they were in close, hand-to-hand combat range, Steve had to think quickly. He looked around for Alex while he took out his diamond sword. Where was she now?

* * *

Alex shoots down another couple of fighters before advancing towards the tent with their animals. All Alex could do was hope that Steve was okay where he was, which she seriously doubted. She rushes two men and single handedly slices them to death. 'That better not have attracted attention...' she thinks, getting nearer to the needed fence post.

On the other side of the camp, Steve was dying. His health wouldn't go up past four hearts, even with his Regeneration II buff. He was simply overwhelmed. He was even afraid that his sword might be swatted from him.

Steve had no choice but to evade their attacks. He sprints away for quite a distance. Eating a steak, he walks the perimeter of the camp, making sure not to get too far off as not to give the impression that he ran away. None of his enemies saw him.

That is, exept for one.

Steve caught his breath and crouched in the leaves and foliage, trying to avoid the glares of his opposition. Steve bumps into something that fell down, getting in his way and nearly trampling him off of the tree. "Stupid sheep!" he whispers, swatting at the fluffy nuisance.

"BAA!" It cries.

In their foreign dialect, he calls the team to the sheep's direction. Three arrows fly into Steve's direction, all of them hitting the block of leaf above him. Alex better be finished by now...

* * *

Alex slashes the lead strings off of a horse and her dog, commanding her dog to sit up on the saddle behind her. Alex then takes the lead of the second horse and sets out to call Steve. It seemed as if the entire tribe was after him, even though she was the one that shot the arrow...

'I guess there's nothing much to lose at this point...' she thinks. "STEVE!" She shouts into the clattter of swords and bowstrings. The dog behind her began to whimper, as if knowing that Steve was in severe pain (which he was). "Steve? Come on!" Her horses couldn't go past the leaves, so Alex hops off of her horse and heads to help him.

"Steve?!" she calls, trying to see him through the thick leaves. "Steve?! The horses are ready!" Suddenly, an arrow flies and nearly hits Alex in the head. She runs to the shooter and shanks him on the spot. It was a wonder how many warriors there were left to fight. How many total people were there, including civilians?

Steve's helmet had already broken through the immense pressure and damage dealt to it. It seemed miraculous how his other articles of armor have survived everything else, especially his chestplate. He looks up and sees Alex coming down to help him,

"Go, Alex!" he says, swinging his sword (and missing) at an attacker. "Take...the animals and go!" Alex's eyes began to water.

"No...you are coming with me and that is final!" She takes his arm and drags him along the ground. Steve wasn't doing well: his entire suit of armor (that was remaining) was covered in arrows, and his health had nearly reached zero. His hunger had also reached below sprinting power.

"Alex...I'm gonna die here. Just...go without me. Be the hero, I don't care!" Alex couldn't look back, not with all of the arrows flying in her direction. "Isn't this what you wanted? You wanted me to die, and it'll be fine with me. As long as...you save us from the Enderdragon-" An arrow hits Steve's leggings, causing the iron to shatter. He yelps in pain as more tribesmen invade the surrounding leaf blocks.

A bowstring twangs in the distance, sounding more noticeable than all the other archers. The arrow lands straight in Alex's neck, causing her to fall down and let go of Steve.

"Alex...take the animals...go...I'll hold them off..." She couldn't believe he was fighting for her, even if he had half a heart left, even if his diamond sword was about to break, and even if only had a chestplate and a pair of boots to protect him. He...CARED.

A fighter jumps in between Steve on the ground and Alex. Panicking, Alex turns around and runs away before he could attack anyone. She picks up the lead of Steve's horse, mounts her own and set it off to run down the hill and into the river. Looking up at the spot Steve was laying down at, Alex could see that no one was there. Everyone seemed to have disappeared from the scene, like Invisibility had swept over them once Alex left the scene.

Alex wouldn't look back. She couldn't if she tried.

* * *

**Sorry for not updating this in a while. I've been caught up watching Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away. Good movies if you haven't seen them.**

**Thanks anyways!  
-DWalkthroughGuy**


	18. Chapter 18

Alex looks up unsurprisingly as another Eye of Ender shatters above her. Snow poured down on the horses as she searches for another Eye in her inventory. Although she has been traveling by herself for quite some time now all by herself, she couldn't take her mind off of Steve. 'It was my fault, really' she thinks to herself, remembering when she ran off on her own, leaving Steve behind because of one tribe member. She had fought and killed so many of them before that, and she couldn't BELIEVE that that was the reason she left him.

She didn't understand why she was so concerned about him. Alex never liked him in THAT way. Sure, they had helped each other on this quest, dealt with each other and kept the other company, but it didn't make their relationship any more special. They were still mortal enemies, right?

Alex shakes her head. Steve was right. She had wanted him dead all this time. She had forced herself to take Steve with her, but really, she wanted to be the only human alive on this world, using whatever means she had. However, she had tolerated him through all of the times, and even though he did some stupid things, she had to admit: she couldn't have gone this far without him.

But...that wasn't what she wanted now. She feels bad for leaving him there, and she's beating herself up because he's probably dead now, all because of her. Even the dog empathized, showing a similar depressed demeanor. The cold air around Alex had creeped up on her, and so had the night. Alex and the animals had to find a shelter before it got dark. If it snowed and got dark, Alex was certain that all of them would freeze to death.

* * *

In the distance, Alex spots a stone cove and decides that they really had no other choice but to use that one. She drives the horses towards the hollow hill. It was deep, but it ended up being a dead end, which was exactly what she and the animals needed.

Alex parks the animals by tying them to a fence post. Near that, she dug a block out of the ground and replaced it with netherrack. Igniting it, the air around it bursts into flame. The fire was small and contained. Not only was the fire a center of heat, but also a sufficient light source that illuminated most of the cove.

All of a sudden, her dog had started barking, like a presence was threatening the four. Alex takes out her diamond sword, ready to take on anything that came out of the snow. She waits for a minute, but no one came. Maybe someone was outside; her dog would not stop barking at the snow. Cautiously, she takes a step forward into the icy grouns. Looking down, she sees a familiar head buried in the snow.

"STEVE?" She exclaims, equipping her shovel and digging at the dirt and the terrain around him. "Steve?! Are you awake? Say something!" She digs out enough where she can lift him up to the cave. Like a grown carrot, Alex lifts him out of the ground. She then carries him near the fire.

"Steve...please wake up..." Alex's dog walks up to Steve and sniffs around him. "Lay off him, Vix..." Alex was beginning to tear up again. Why was he important to her? Why did she make a big deal out of this?

Steve was armorless and held a torch in his hand, which was put out by the snow. He didn't show any injuries other than severe frostbite. Alex doesn't know what to do about it. She doesn't know if she's going to be able to fight the Ender Threat if she can't even keep her teammate alive.

'I'm crying because of the Ender Threat, right? Not because of Steve, right? Right, Alex?' Her mind kept going on and on like this, all while watching if Steve would ever wake up. 'No...' She accepts defeat and cries next to Steve. Never before has she felt so helpless in her life. She has everything she needs: diamonds, a huge mansion, perpetual farms. But never has Alex also realized the importance of a single person.

Alex had to try something. She wasn't just going to leave him here. Digging through her inventory, she takes out a potion of Regeneration II. Vix brings a blanket over to Steve while Alex tries to administer the medicine. Alex sits back, not knowing if the potion even reached his system at all. Beginning to cry again, she leans her head against the stone wall, eventually falling asleep.

* * *

Alex slowly gains consciousness. "It's okay...Alex...don't cry...I'm here...Steve is home..." She opens her eyes and sees Steve looking into them. He wipes away a tear. "Why were you crying?" He asks, smiling. "So we still mornal enemies? Or..." Alex shakes her head and begins to cry again. This time, however, they were tears of joy. Alex laughs and hugs him to the ground.

"You're alive!" She exclaims, causing Steve to laugh with her. He looks up, and they both catch each other's eyes for a moment. Alex rolls off, still hugging Steve. "Please, don't leave me like that again..."

"Scared of the dark? You don't need me. You got your dog-"

"Scared of the emptiness. I do need you, and the animals won't fill that...void..." Steve chuckles.

"So I partly fill in your world?" Steve says, raising an eyebrow. Alex, looking away, blushes and quickly nods her head. "Don't be embarrased..." Steve pulls her in for a bigger hug. "You fill mine too..."

* * *

**Wow. Just like two iron trapdoors connected to the same active lever. They're opening up! ****Sorry if this was too much. This was way more fluff than I originally planned. ****Overdose maybe?**

**Thanks anyways!**

**-DWalkthroughGuy**


	19. Chapter 19

Steve wakes up in the middle of the night. Looking over to his left, he sees Alex leaning her head on his shoulder. Was he dreaming again? She was still cute when she was sleeping...

Other than that, what was keeping him awake? Carefully as not to awaken Alex, he looks behind him very slowly. There was a creeper, who hissed, ready to detonate. The creeper explodes, sending Alex and Steve flying. The horses and dog were killed, but that wasn't what Steve was worried about.

Although the fire was put out, Steve crawled over to what looked like Alex, her diamond armor gleaming in the streaming moonlight. "Alex...?" Steve asks, already crying. She was obviously dead, her body motionless and still. "No, this isn't real. It's just a bad dream, is all. Just wake up Steve...wake up!" After rocking back and forth next to Alex's body, Steve heard the hisses of spiders. He turns to the entrance and takes out a pickaxe that he still had in his inventory.

"Cave spiders!" Steve exclaims, saying his least favorite mob in this world. He swats at one, but it seemed to go right through the pickaxe. The mob bites him in the neck, spawning an incredibly sharp pain to shoot up his neck. He could feel the venom begin to kick in. His fingers were the first to feel the numbing chemical. Crawling over to the netherrack, he takes the bloody iron sword to fight off the cave spiders that were pouring in the cave by the dozen.

However, they wouldn't attack Steve or Alex. They looked at him intently, specifically, the cutlass he held. The numbing in his fingers faded away as quickly as it came. Still confused at what the spiders wanted, one of them walked up to his sword, and seemed to lead him on. Steve follows the spider until he stops, right above Alex.

No, he wasn't going through this again. "No. I'm not killing her!" Steve swings at the cave spider, but the iron blade goes right through the mob, like a ghost. "What?" A deep laugh resonated in the silent walls. The only other sounds were just melted snow dripping down from the roof and the occasional hiss from one of the spiders.

"You thought you could escape me..." A dark voice says at the entrance. Steve whirls around, iron sword in hand. "You and your mistress over there may have escaped the Nether, but you haven't escaped ME!"

"Herobrine?! You're real?"

"Yes. The six-year-olds you've been playing with on Skyblock aren't lying..." Steve was shocked. All his life, Herobrine was a legend, an intangible myth. Even when he was a little boy, he never believed in him, but now that he was standing right in front of him...

"But you're..."

"A legend?" Herobrine laughs, his white eyes illuminating most of the cave. "Well, as you can see, I am very well alive. I am real. And I WILL take over the Overworld!" He swoops down and grabs the bloody iron sword out of Steve's hands. "And there's NOTHING that can stop me!" He swings the blade right at Steve.

Steve wakes up, sweaty and breathing heavy. He looks down at Alex, who was sleeping by his side, safe and sound, and cuter than ever. Still breathing heavy, Steve looks to the cave entrance. Where are the cave spiders? Herobrine? That was all a dream? He lies back down on his bed, closing his eyes for a moment. Maybe his dreams were telling him something...

"That's ridiculous. He's just a myth..." Steve whispers, rolling over to look at Alex. He was glad she was safe, and also that the fire two inches from her didn't ignite the woolen bed.

* * *

After a light breakfast of bread in bed, the two hop on their horses and set out for the search of the stronghold. "This is certainly taking a long time..." Steve comments, taking control of his saddle. Alex smirks.

"Definitely. Usually by now we would be fighting the Enderdragon." They were silent after that, just as if the night before never even happened. Of course, they mentally admired each other for that: Steve for being alive and Alex for saving him.

She tosses another Eye of Ender, following its particle trail and driving the horses to that direction. An hour passes by, and a shattering eye catches their attention. "How many of those do you have left?" Steve questions. Hopefully they would have enough to finish the trip as well as enough to activate the End portal.

"Six. And I didn't bring any obsidian to get blaze powder. Or blaze powder," Alex replies. They had to make their own obsidian and go back to the Nether. Not only that, but they would have to endure the possibility of permanent death of this world. After all, they both set it to Hardcore.

"Only six?! Ugh! They'll all be broken by the time we get there!" Steve complains. Alex glares informally.

"Don't say that! What if we do make it?"

"And then what? What if we don't have enough to turn on the End frames?" Alex thinks about it. He was right. "Here, I have an idea: How about we only throw the Eye of Ender after a few dozen meters, and not immediately after we catch it? That way, there's a lower chance for the Eye to break!" It wasn't half bad.

"Yeah, alright. But if we're off by several chunks it's on you," Alex replies, pocketing the Eye of Ender. Steve puts his hands up.

"Alright." They continue to cruise down the snowy path, conversing back on forth about random occurrences in previous worlds and anecdotes. The sun began to set, and they set up the beds for the night. They eat dinner on their beds high up on a spruce tree, watching the big ball of fire fall below the hills. Alex and Steve sat still, unsure what to say. They pretended to be intent on the sunset, when they really wanted to say something to the other, something just as equally important.

* * *

**Yes, there will be Herobrine in this, but I personally do not believe in him/it. It was probably some Creepypasta made by a condescending and presumptuous teenager that thought it would be funny to pull a prank on little kids (74.2% of Minecraft fanbase) on Halloween.**

**Either that or it was a joke made by someone on Mojang.**

**Thanks anyways!  
-DWalkthroughGuy**


	20. Chapter 20

Alex stomps the ground below her infuriatingly as another Eye of Ender breaks above her. "Well, we're down to five," Steve notes. Alex flares, just wishing that it would last them enough, which she was sure it won't. Steve was beginning to lose hope, and he had already started organizing his inventory for a Nether fight, something that he knew they'd have to do some day.

'Now would probably be a good time to ask her...' he thinks. "Hey, uh, Alex?" she looks at him with a soft anger, not because of him, but still because of the failing gems that lead them to their destinations.

"Yeah? What?"

"Uh, I had a dream last night...uh, it was...kinda weird..." She raises a curious eyebrow.

"What happened in it?"

"Well, I don't remember much, but...I saw Herobrine in it...and, you...died..." Alex gasps. Her face suddenly boiled with rage, resenting from the mere mention of his name.

"Herobrine..." she mutters, focusing on the snow in front of her.

"I always thought he was just legend," Steve admits. "I know this is a dumb question, but, is he...real?" Alex looks at him like he asked how to make a crafting table.

"Real? Oh, he's everywhere! You didn't know?" Steve felt like an outsider, but he didn't mind. "He controls...many things we know. He's with us. Everywhere, everytime..." Instead of finding it scary, Steve found it rather peculiar.

"So, do you know him or something? You sound like you know him." Alex looks up from her saddle.

"How did you know?" Steve didn't believe her.

"Nice ruse, Ms. Alex, but I know he's not real."

"You wish!"

"What do you mean?"

"He...he ruined...life for me..." Steve looked at her with a sense of concern as she continued to mumble unintelligible thoughts in her mind.

"He...I know...he was...it was all real..." he looks around to see if there was anything around that could be causing this, but he halts in place after Alex ignored his attempts to bring her back to reality. She does have the ender eyes, after all.

"Alex!" Steve raises his voice, catching her attention.

"Huh?" Steve sighs. What exactly just happened?

"What happened back there?" he asks her. Alex shakes her head.

"Nothing you need to worry about!" she says in a rather irritated tone. "Just...nothing...it's fine..." Steve wasn't sure about that, but he put it away in the back of his mind. What he really needed to focus on was the amount of Eyes of Ender they had left before it ran out. Continuing with the day with that clouding his mind proved to be difficult.

Nevertheless, the two pushed onwards, despite the constant thoughts bombarding their minds.

* * *

Alex and Steve snuggle in their own beds as the snow began to fall silently, the full moon rising in the horizon.

Steve wakes up in his bed, the snow at full blast. The wind was at an incredible speed, making it nearly impossible for Steve to see. Luckily, he had a torch and a glass block in his inventory. He carves out a small hole for the torch to put it through in the glass block with a pickaxe and puts it inside. 'Now the torch can't be put out by the snow' he thinks, smiling at his cleverness.

However, Alex wasn't in her bed. "What...again?" he says out loud, walking towards it on top of the tree. The snow-crusted leaves crunch under his feet. He steps on a block, but it gives away, causing him to fall out of the spruce tree down to the dirt below.

"AGH!" he grunts, getting up slowly. The iron armor was not a good insulator, and especially not good for the snow underneath him. Steve gets up, fortunately not taking any fall damage. "That's weird, I could've sworn that that tree was at least ten blocks tall..."

Shaking it off, he gets up and looks around. He holds up the glass-torch lantern to light up the dark forest. "This is...creepy..." he comments, walking through the snowy land. The wilderness here in the night was not like anything he's seen before. Even in the night, forests like this weren't this dark.

Or eerie.

He sees a bloody iron sword lying on the ground; the exact same signature icon of assassination with the blood drops and stains in the same places. He ignores it and leaves it in the snow. 'If I have nothing to kill with I have nothing to kill...' he thinks to himself. He was glad that he didn't have to worry about a choice like that. However, he still had to look for Alex, and that was something he wasn't quite sure of where to start with.

He looks around him again, trying to search for a clue that could help him find a trace for Alex. With the wind and the dark, this was not an easy task. He holds his makeshift lantern up, which provided very little light compared to the very ominous darkness. Steve was compelled to continue, so he pushed on despite the conditions.

Steve looks under the tree and spots footsteps. They were the only other footsteps in the entire forest, and there weren't any other mobs around to make them either. Steve shrugs and follows the trail anyways. The path was strange, though, as there weren't any indicators that Alex had fallen or climbed down. Steve shields his eyes from the storm as he holds the lantern up, but something in the forest was changing.

The bases of the spruce trees began to glow red and orange, as if a fire was kindling at their bases. All of the trees were starting to glow similarly, and after a while, all of the leaves burst in flames at once. The leaf blocks were blazing, but Steve didn't feel their heat. The snowstorm also pressed on. Steve continues to follow the path. Billows of smoke piled high in the sky, covering it in a reddish-black glow. It looked very similar to the sky of the Nether.

'This place is really freaking me out right now!' he thinks, picking up the pace and following the steps. The trail led on for a few more blocks until eventually stopping at a ravine. He freezes in time, just before he was about to slip under the rocks he was standing on. Steve sat still in the icy winds; all he could do was sit there. The footsteps continued on the other side, but there was no way around the ravine. The deep crack stretched on for miles on end, and there was packed ice at the bottom.

But Steve looked closely past the sheets of snow pouring down, only to spot a quaint little cabin. Around it stood tall grass that served as a front yard. Squinting his eyes, Steve could see through a window that there were two people inside, two people he could recognize even from this distance.

'Herobrine and Alex?' he thinks, before slipping on the stones.

* * *

**I admit, that last fire scene was inspired by Markimoo's playthrough of Kholat. If you haven't heard of either, I highly recommend you go check them out. They're rad stuff.**

**Thanks anyways!  
-DWalkthroughGuy**


	21. Chapter 21

Steve screams as he claws at the snowy rock above, trying to find a grip on something, _anything_. Gravity yanks him down, and he succumbs to the force. Flailing his arms, he hits a few sharp rocks jutting out from the cliff face. Nothing he snagged or slammed into helped in slowing down or catching him in his fall. Steve felt hearts being taken away one by one as he constantly hits the stone.

His body plows into the bottom, but Steve wasn't dead. His health was still incredibly low; in fact, he survived the fall with only two hearts left. "How do I get up there?" He asks out loud, almost expecting someone to give him an answer. He lost his iron pickaxe somewhere in the fall, and the lantern shattered as well. Steve correctly guessed that the cliff face was virtually impossible to climb without his tools.

Steve looks around for an exit, but saw nothing. He lies down in the snow and closes his eyes, hoping he could fade back to reality.

* * *

Steve's eyes open again, excited to be back in the spruce tundra with Alex. Immediately filled with disappointment, he sits up, still at the bottom of the ravine. "How do I-" Steve looks around, hoping there was a ladder or stream of water to climb up.

He walks down the ravine. After a bit of trekking past heavy snow and fallen spruce trunks, Steve sees a rail bridge. A wooden platform with oak scaffolding at the top. "Abandoned mineshaft?" he says out loud again. Steve sees a natural staircase and jumps up to the platform. When he walked on it, the wood creaked beneath him. Although rickety, it was secure and held in place.

Steve looks both ways of the rail that run through it. Which way should he go? Shrugging, he heads for the one going into the other side. He runs down it with a sense of wonder. Cobwebs and bats were everywhere. There was even a cave spider spawner surrounded with cobweb that he made sure to avoid. Steve saw a minecart with chest, which had nothing but melon seeds and gold ingots in it.

There was only one rail direction, and when Steve reached the end, he saw that there was also an exit hole. He climbs past a chunk of granite and enters the snowy surface. He actually made it to the other side without a problem! The spruce wood cabin was at reach, and there was a window. A large glass pane was hung at the wall, and Steve could see Alex and...Steve?

"That's not me..." Steve says, walking up to the window. He could see the two of them through the frosted glass; they were amicably conversing. Although he couldn't understand what they were saying, Steve notices that the other Steve was holding an apple. "That is NOT me..." Steve heads for the front door, but it was locked. He tried knocking, but nobody answered for a while. He walks back to the window and taps on it, but they didn't seem to notice him. The other Steve nor Alex even acknowledged his presence outside.

'There has to be another way in' Steve says to himself. He surrounds the perimeter of the house, hoping for an opening that he could enter through. After a second revolution, he finds a tiny vent he never spotted before. 'Probably leads to the basement.' But figuring that it was his only way of entry, he busts it open anyway. It gave away easily, much to his surprise.

Steve crawls inside, trying to be as quiet as possible. He tumbles into the basement floor. The first thing he noticed was that it was pitch black, that is for the moonlight outside. Steve looks for his lantern, but remembers that he lost it during the fall. He feels his away around until he feels some stairs. 'A way out!'

He walks up the stairs. Halfway up, the rail shatters, and so do the stairs below him. He screams and falls down to another floor below him. How many floors were there in this cabin? Getting up, Steve reaches for his head, which had a monster headache.

"Well, at least there's a torch in this room," he mumbles, picking up a stray torch lying on the ground.

Upon closer inspection, Steve could see that this was no regular stone room. There was cobblestone and moss stone that was set as the floor. The wall and ceiling was made of the same material.

And in the middle was a zombie spawner. Around the walls sat some chests. Steve's immediate instinct was to go and open it. He grabs the latch of one and swings it open, hoping to find treasure like diamonds or horse armor.

But instead, someone about the size of Steve pops out of it. "AGH!" he shrieks, falling on his back.

"Yes, YES! I am...FREE!" The spirit flies up and looks at Steve with purple eyes. "Thank you..." Flying up, the black figure goes up the hole in the stairs that Steve made.

"Hey, wait!" Steve stacks the spawner and two chests, climbing up until he could reach the stairs. He scrambles up on it, running up the steps. For a glimpse, he spots the ender-figure seeping through the four holes of the door. Steve immediately opens it, and exits the basement.

He rounds a corner and sees Alex and the other Steve, sitting right next to the glass pane. Although he could hear them, Steve just couldn't understand what they were saying, even though it sounded like fluent English. They were sipping something from a cup and were eating cake on a piston table, something Steve didn't catch before.

But there was still something he noticed. In the other Steve's hand, there was an apple. It looked ordinary, but it gave Steve a feeling that it meant something important, but he just couldn't decipher it.

The ghost moves toward the two, hovering near the cake. They don't seem to notice the ghost at all. It looks at them expectantly, back and forth, as if he was waiting for one of them to notice.

But they didn't.

The figure lets out a ghastly cry before entering straight into the other Steve. The other Steve stops, staring right through Alex. She waves a hand in his face, but there wasn't a response.

The actual Steve inches closer towards the piston, the other Steve still looking off into space. After a while, his head rolls back, passing out.

The ghost flies out of the other Steve and straight into the real one.

* * *

**Sorry I'm late. I was busy doing stuffs.**

**And procrastinating.**

**That too.**

**Thanks anyways!  
-DWalkthroughGuy**


	22. Chapter 22

Steve wakes up from the nightmare. Did a spirit just enter him? 'Just a dream, Steve...' he assures himself. It couldn't have been anything else, really.

"You okay, Steve?" Alex asks in a bed on a tree next to his. Steve rubs his eyes in tiredness. It had taken nearly all the willpower in him to not scream himself awake, but he was fine now, right? Back in the real world.

"Yes, thanks...just a bad dream..." he replies, but Alex doubted he was.

After another light breakfast of bread and steak, they immediately mount their horses and get moving. The single Eye of Ender they had left was miraculously staying intact for nearly the entire day.

It was half past noon when Alex throws the Ender Eye up, and it finally shatters. "Dang it! That's our last one!" Steve sighs.

"I guess we should be heading towards the same direction. We have been since the beginning," he suggests, whipping the leather strings on the saddle of his horse. Alex shrugs. That was true, but how will they know when to stop? What if they run out of supplies, when they already passed it miles ago?

"We should make a Nether portal," she deadpans. Steve looks at her and nods, acquiescing in the idea. "We have to."

"I know..." he growls, dodging a spruce tree.

* * *

They continued their journey to the direction of the Eye of Ender. Alex and Steve didn't really have much to report, apart from having a bad dream. Alex had had one as well, but she refused to tell him. They had grown significantly closer together. No longer did they consider themselves mortal enemies, even though they always joked about it. Their friendship had always been there, but they simply refused to accept it.

They finally exit the cold tundra and enter the mountains. There, they saw what looked to be a mine setup. "Oh my gosh! I remember working here so long ago!" Steve looks at her confusingly. "Yeah. I used to go out in search of some mines that seemed promising and wrote their coords down in my notebook. This one was a pretty good one too. I don't think I ever deemed it fully exhausted. There might be some obsidian down here."

Steve had a feeling...

"I think we should go check it out, actually. Come on!"

There it was...

"Really, it won't be so bad. Come on! We might find some cool things!" Steve wasn't so sure this would mean anything in the overall outcome. Steve dismounts his horse, ties a lead to the entrance's fence post and follows the excited Alex into the cave.

"I was gonna put a rail system, but at a time I lived in the face of a mountain! I never had the resources. Now I have enough to build from my house down the bedrock of this!" Steve sighs. He won't have to listen to THIS the whole time, will he?

They both enter, despite Steve's incredible reluctance. Alex and Steve pass by an actual abandoned mineshaft, a large rut in the stone that she claimed to be a huge vein of diamond, and finally, an underground ravine It was exceptionally dark, but only because Alex had never explored this area. They were on a one-block wide ledge, with barely any lighting. As they travel further down a certain stone passage, Steve sees how the cave was dug into the mountain naturally.

Which was a perfect breeding ground for the mobs below.

"Hey look! Over there! A lava lake!" Alex points to a cove outside of the ravine, and in it was a pool of lava. It was a wonder that the whole time a single body of lava never showed up. It was a considerably deep ravine, even though they were only on the second ledge. Alex decides to dig out a spiral case of stone to make her way down. Steve shook his head and stayed on the ledge, watching Alex down on the bottom. He knew that this wasn't a good idea, and he refused to join he when she asked if he would go.

From the darkness that Alex hadn't torched yet, Steve sees a wave of skeletons heading for Alex. "ALEX!" Steve yells. "BEHIND YOU!" she whirls around, seeing the mobs.

"HOW DID THEY-" a skeleton cuts her off by shooting her in the arm. "Agh!" She backs into the cove, as it was the only thing behind her. It was neither the skeletons or the lava.

"No! Alex!" Steve quickly hops down the spiral staircase dug into the wall. Once he reaches the bottom, he quickly flashes his diamond sword to several of the skellies. "Come on after me...come on...this way..." One of them shot at Steve, but he blocks it on time. "ALEX! GO!" Alex sees the skeletons that were chasing after her head for Steve instead. She exits the cove and takes out her bow. Alex was the team archer after all.

Targeting the one closest to Steve, she sets her bow to full strength, feeling the tensity of the string. She lets it fly, and it ended up smashing through three skulls successively. The skeletons in the back of the team look behind and see Alex. The weight shifts and heads for her, who was quickly trying to build a wall so she wouldn't fall in the lava.

Suddenly, two skeletons shoot her right in the back, pushing her past the half-built wall. She shrieks out in pain, feeling like the enchanted diamond armor was doing absolutely nothing about the molten rock. Through her own screaming, the clacking of bones and the sparking of the fire, she could hear Steve screaming her name and running towards her. "NO, ALEX! I'M NOT LETTING YOU DIE..."

Alex blacks out from the fire.

Steve shoves two skeletons into the lava as he grabs her nearly roasted arm, pulling up the rest of her body. He immediately tosses her into a nearby waterfall. Panicking, he throws his only splash of potion of Regeneration II at her. "That has to bring her back. That HAS to bring her back..." He turns around and swings it at a row of five skeletons. Five other ones in the back shoot him in the head. After killing them, seven more fire. His health was depleting fast, and he felt as if he as going to die as well.

"I...can't..." Steve falls down into a two block deep pit, unable to get up. There, he swiped at the legs of the skeletons above him. While doing this stable and safe process, he looks over at the waterfall that Alex was sitting in. "...help you anymore..."

* * *

**I know that molten rock that is deep underground and hasn't reached the surface is considered magma, but technically, it is lava in Minecraft. Thanks to dumb logic, lava is lava everywhere, because picking up molten rock anywhere in the world, regardless of coordinates, is still called a "Lava Bucket". So yey.**

**Thanks anyways!  
-DWalkthroughGuy**


	23. Chapter 23

After Steve finishes off the last of the skeletons, he runs over to Alex, sitting her up straight against the stone. She didn't show any signs of waking up any time soon.

"Please..." he mumbles, almost on the verge of tears. "Alex...wake up...say something...do something to tell me you're awake..."

Alex didn't budge, and neither did Steve. He just sat there in silence, letting the sound of mobs resonate through the ravine. She had to be awake; there was no way she was dead.

"Alex...please don't leave..." he holds her hand and looks in his inventory for anything else that could possibly bring her back: a potion, a bucket of milk, whatever he could get his hands on that looked to be something that could wake her up.

He looks up at her face one last time. "I'm not leaving you here alone..." Steve blocks out the area with cobblestone walls to ward off the mobs, leaving him alone with Alex and a single torch as lighting. He sets a bed down on the hard stone and lays Alex in it. Steve watches her from a distance, sitting on a stone block.

"You know, when I first saw you," Steve begins, realizing he was talking to a lifeless body. "I always thought that we'd be at war with each other every day. We'd be, attacking each other's bases, pulling ridiculous missions and all that nonsense.

"But I found out, we wouldn't only destroy the beautiful world around us, but, we'd be destroying each other. We would be trying hard to take away what we need in this world. I'm guilty of that myself.

"I'm really sorry, Alex. Y'know I'd never believe myself when I say these words, but..." Steve stops himself. She had to be unconscious, but at the same time, Steve wished she wasn't. "I love you," he rushes out. "And n-not...in...in THAT way..." he quickly adds, in case she was listening. "And I wished nothing harmful ever would happen to you..."

Steve sits there in wait for her awakening. He sat there all night, the sounds of the mobs keeping him from sleeping. He wanted to be awake anyways, more time for him to think through what he had to do, if she were to die...or if she WAS...

Steve didn't like to think about it. He needed to think about himself only. Any thought of Alex would start him up again, but yet again, there she was, lying right in front of him. Her enchanted diamond armor was still on, and the lava char still aignificantly visible. Her body, however, did not show any signs of the burning. 'Did the potion work on time?' Steve thought.

'I mean, if she were dead, she would've dropped her stuff everywhere, right?' Steve tries to encourage himself, no longer able to think for himself at the moment. 'And, and, and her body would dissipate into smoke like mobs and animals, right?'

Who was he kidding? She wasn't waking up any time soon, especially if it's already been a night. Maybe she's in a severe coma. 'She'll be fine, she'll be fine...'

Steve digs out a doorway with the diamond pickaxe Alex gave him and carries past the mobs, up the ravine and caves, back up to the top of the mountain. The sky was dark. 'Still nighttime...' Steve thought to himself. He sets Alex down, her armor still on. He looks up to the sky. The stars look down at him with pity as gargantuan night clouds lumber through the sky.

It was incredibly peaceful, but not in the right mood. It was quiet and calm, but with a thick atmosphere of sorrow. Steve kneels down beside her, looking at the full moon lingering in the horizon. The sky brightened as the moon sank into the spruce forest they had passed earlier. The morning sun rose on the opposite end of the horizon, drowning out the light of the distant stars.

Steve approaches the two horses and dog still leashed to the fence post. Smiling, he unleashes the dog and Alex's horse. "Be free," he whispers, stroking the mane of the horse. He leaves the armor and saddle, and watches it as it makes its way down the mountain face to the open plains. The dog, however, was a little more hesitant. It tilts its head to the side, confused and unwilling to leave. Steve laughs and kneels to its height. "You go now. You won't have to stay here any longer. Here, have a steak before you go," Steve says, handing it one of Steve's final foodstuffs.

The dog holds the beef in its mouth, still looking up at Steve. He smiles and just stands there, staring back at the dog. After an awkward minute of the beef hanging from the dog's mouth, he eventually whimpers, turns around and runs out to the north to the tundra. "Well, horse, you're coming with me." Steve mounts the saddle and clops over to Alex.

He hops down and checks her breathing, but finds nothing. She wasn't moving, and she wasn't breathing either. "What am I going to do now?" he whispers. He saddles her up behind him as he commands the horse to advance. Steve had to finish it. He had to defeat the Enderdragon for Alex. That's why they went out this far, and that's why she died.

Steve had to finish it for her.

* * *

Steve tiredly passes a swamp, which made it harder for his horses to pass through. The muddy water slowed his horses down so much that he simply jumped out, attached the hose to a lead and trekked the swamp on his own. Every once in a while, Steve couldn't help but turn around and look at Alex. He had to bring her back somehow. He didn't know how, when or why, but he had to. Steve couldn't help but wallow; both in sorrow, guilt and mud. The horse wasn't being cooperative either, only festering his mood. Although he's never lived in a world with friends and others, but he really needed Alex back, and not just for the fight, either.

The sun reaches its highest point, almost as if it was suspended right above him in the sky by a string. There was no way of knowing when he'll actually pass or go over the stronghold, or if he ever will. But Steve had to do something: he either brought her back, or he finishes the quest for her. But again, a flow of doubt filled his mind. There was no way of knowing for sure.

Steve jerks his foot from a resistant glob of mucky water. He also wanted to live, right? What was the use of avenging someone that died? She didn't even die because of him, it was because of a band of skeletons that decided to have some target practice at the wrong time. His thoughts ranted on and on as he passes yet another puddle of dirty water he was knee-deep in.

After a few hours, the heat caught up to him, draining most of his energy. Getting his legs and boots out of the mud also proved to be a very tiring activity, over the span of a full day. He almost gave up on his horse being lazy a couple of times. He was relieved to see that there was a little hut a few meters. It looked abandoned; the outside foliage consisted of heavy patches of overgrown fungi. The walls were draped with vines, and caked mud solidified on the stilts of the foundation.

"Better than nothing..." Steve mumbles to himself. He ties the lead of the horse to a fence post. Steve never knew how happy he could be on a patch of dry grass. Picking up his boots and putting them in front of him never proved to be a difficult task until he had dried mud all over them. He puts them up the stairs, one by one. He bursts through the door, landing on the cool wooden floor made out of spruce planks. He removes his diamond armor, the dusty air of the indoors filling him with relief. Although the sun contributed to most of the heat, the armor was also a tight insulator, trapping the heat within for surprisingly long periods of time.

Steve basks in the air for a minute. He looks up, glancing at the furnishings of the home. The wall to the right of the entrance had one window. A crafting table, furnace and chest sat on the floor, respectively. The wall to the left of the entrance also had one window, looking out at the endless swamp. An empty cauldron and two brewing stands also lined the side.

Another minutes passively passes. Never before had he realized how drowsy he was until he was lying down. There wasn't a bed, so he stayed where he was, hoping that the wind would close the wooden door for him. He closes his eyes, completely oblivious to the footsteps climbing the staircase.

* * *

**Sorry this took SOO long! I was being lazy/busy again! I'm not even going to try to explain myself. I'm too lazy to write an explanation anyways.**

**Made it EXTRA long, but probably didn't help much :p**

**Thanks anyways!  
-DWalkthroughGuy**


	24. Chapter 24

Steve was asleep when the occupant of the home walked in on him on her floor. Being a friendly one of her kind, she let him rest, sighs, and puts away the ingredients she hunted for in a nearby chest. She cautiously taps his leg with her foot, hoping that he was alive.

Blinking his eyes open, Steve looks up from his position, the smell of heat and the netherworld filling him with dread. He rolls over on his side. Steve was beginning to wake up when the occupant spoke. "Um, can I help you?" a scratchy voice says. Steve hadn't heard a voice like that before since...

A flashback of quick poison and instant harming shooting through his veins woke him up. He arms his diamond sword and points it at the witch robed in purple. "WHAT ARE..." He stops to see that the witch had her hands up in peace. "...you doing here?"

"I would dearly like to know the same," she replies bluntly. "Did you think that this was an abandoned home?" she asks. She was certainly pacifistic for a generally hostile mob. "Now that I mention it, I guess I really do need to clean up this mess..."

Steve could only nod, rather satisfied that the witch didn't want any trouble. "So how long have you been living in my hut?" she inquires.

"Just an hour ago. I'm sorry to bother you ma'am. I'll head over-"

"Oh no, stay here for as long as you need. Just walking from my nether portal to here in that icky mud was sweltering enough. Where are you headed anyways, young man?"

"I was heading for the End. To fight the Ender Threat." The witch looked at him with a puzzled look, her hat swaying. "You know, where, the End would take over the Overworld eventually and the only way to stop it was to fight the Enderdragon? I'm...going alone..." Steve mumbles. "Wait a minute..."

He brings Alex in, who appeared to be unconscious, but wasn't dead. 'Her stuff would've dropped everywhere, right?' he thinks. "Can you bring her back from, her state of unconsciousness, or whatever? She's been like this for a few days," Steve calmly wheedles. He lays her down on the cool floor, hoping that she didn't get too hot on the backseat of the horse.

The witch kneels down and examines Alex for a minute, the tension in Steve building up dramatically. The witch raises an eyebrow. "Did she drop any items she was carrying?" Steve shakes his head positively. "Good. She seems to be in a coma. What happened before?"

"She fell in some lava. I pulled her out...in time..." Steve's voice fades away as the witch cackles.

"A hero, ain't ya? Don't worry. You're just in luck. I brought in some ghast tears from the nether. Fix her up a potion real quick. She'll be up and ready in a few days after she has a sip of some of my home brew," the witch remarks as she opens the only chest in the house. It was a wonder how she managed to fit all of her belongings in a single chest. Did witches have inventories?

The witch filled a bottle to the neck with water and set it on one of the mini slabs of the brewing stand. As he watched Alex and the witch carefully, Steve began to have some doubts about the occupant. Was she really a friendly witch? Never in his entire Minecraft life had Steve ever encountered a friendly hostile. Perhaps this witch was duplicitous. Steve had to be careful in whatever she did.

"Hey uh, can I...do the potion? I wanted to make it for her. Just...tell me what to do and give me what I need and I'll brew it!" The witch stared at him blankly, but after some awkward hesitation, she nods quickly.

"Yeah, sure, no problem," she says without a crack. "Here. To kick us off, why don't you put in these nether warts?" The witch hands Steve a freshly picked nether wart washed in water. "Fresh from the nether farm!" she proclaims proudly. He puts it on the blaze rod, making sure it was bubbling and infusing properly. The water in the bottle began to boil as well. She rummaged in the chest for a bit and took out a ghast tear and some other stuff. "You keep an eye on that potion. I'll whip us up a powder mixture here, don't mind me." She walks to the crafting table with a stick, bottle, glowstone and redstone, getting to work.

'She really does seem friendly though...' Steve thinks. Maybe he was right, but if he had to pick a mob that was the most cunning, it would be a witch, next to the Enderman. He was so intently focused on his thoughts that he didn't hear the witch speaking to him.

"Uh, hello?" she says, holding a bottle of orange powder in her hand. Steve snaps back to reality, looking at the orange dye she had in her hand.

"Why do we need dye?"

"This isn't dye, silly. This is a mixture of glowstone and redstone. Tricks the brewing stand into making it long and strong. I gave a big dose. Someone with a coma is definitely going to need a good perking up. Give it a go, will you? I got some other ingredients here in the chest." The clinking of bottles were heard as Steve sprinkles the orange powder slowly and steadily, almost expecting it to erupt if he were to put a single grain too much at a time.

"Here you go, young lad. Did the powder set in okay? Some smoke from it is expected," the witch hands him a single ghast tear, readying the final brew. Finally, the last of the smoke cleared, and Steve reached out to take the finished drink.

But the witch wasn't done yet. "One final touch dear, just one more ingredient to make it work. She takes out a bowl, stick and some ingredients she already mixed up. The smell of putrid acidity filled the room, but the witch didn't seem to mind. She poured in a bit of sugar in the mix and began mashing it until Steve thought she would bust a hole through the bowl. "Don't let her drink it yet. I have a recipe for a big pick me up most people don't know. Witches make up their own potions, you know."

She talks the mixture out of the bowl and begins to knead it on the crafting table. Holding it up, she hands it to Steve, who looked at it and put it on the scalding hot blaze rod without a word or complaint. He knew something was up...

After a longer-than-anticipated wait for the brewing stand to finish, Steve freezes. The witch behind him didn't move either, but they both knew that the other was up to something.

Steve's hand grabs the neck of the bottle, his head not moving an inch. In one quick motion, he spins around and chucks the bottle at the witch beside him, which not only pushed her against the wall, but gave her a sickening weakness effect. She leans drowsily against the furnace, glaring at him with sleepy intensity.

"You're not getting away from this!" she thunders, taking out an enchanted bow out of the chest. She whips out an arrow, firing it at Steve. Ducking, the arrow hits the door behind him with a _twang._

Steve arms his diamond sword, getting ready for another fight.

"You sly little witch..." he mumbles.

* * *

**YEY SOMETHING INTERESTING actually happened. This may be the last fight in the Overworld. Why? Because the story's almost over! I plan to end this on chapter thirty, with an epilogue showing the future, but right now, just enjoy the fighting, will you?**

**By the way, for those that didn't get the end, she made a fermented spider eye, which can corrupt a regeneration potion into a weakness potion.**

**Thanks anyways!  
-DWalkthroughGuy**


	25. Chapter 25

Steve gets into a battle stance, slightly low and ready to take a blow. Lucky for him, he managed to be south of the witch, meaning that he got to block the doorway. The only disadvantage to this was the Witch's preferred mode of attack: ranged splash potions. Steve had to leave Alex here if he didn't want to get in the way of her poison or instant harming. Steve knew this witch was prepared to give her all, even if that risked giving herself those attacks.

The witch looks carefully at Steve's every move, preparing a counterattack of her own. Steve slowly backs away, opening the door just a crack. He backs away more, opening the door wider, until eventually he dives out of the way. Seeing that the witch really did throw a splash potion, he immediately dives into a murky pond, avoiding the aerial splash.

As long as he didn't get in the way of the splash, he'd be fine. He had to keep his distance.

But that was the witch's specialty: her bow. The enchanted bow was powerful. Steve remembered having to fight a dungeon of skeletons once. Just the power of standard bows cumulatively proved to be a hard task to combat. Now, with just one bow but with cumulative powers, Steve really had to think twice before every move. The first thing he had to do was find a way to disarm her. He didn't have a bow himself, but he had some other things with him that could work similarly.

The witch steps down from the hut and onto the ground. Ten blocks away, Steve stood. He takes a diamond axe and hurls it at the witch, who skillfully dodges it, letting it fly past her. She fires another arrow at Steve, but that hits the water and sinks like a stone. Steve propels himself from a lily pad and swings his sword towards the witch, who was hit with fierce blows. She tumbles into the murky pond Steve was in. Her weakness had really backfired. She tries to toss another splash potion, but Steve catches it with his bare hands before it even reached its apex.

He throws it back, and she suddenly begins to cough wildly and choke violently. It was a poison potion, judging from the potion particles emanating off her. Steve takes the axe he threw out of the wall and waits for the witch to get out of the water.

When she comes up gasping for air, Steve builds up energy in his arm and releases it on the axe, letting it fly through the air like a dart. It whizzed through the air and hit the witch square in the head, killing her almost instantly. She sinks down the boggy surface, bringing the axe with her. Steve sits down on the stairs, his brain still rushing with adrenaline.

He glances up at Alex, who was still lying down on the floor. She couldn't be dead, that's for sure, but she had to be brought back from consciousness. That witch was right about her being in a deep coma. Steve opens the only chest in the entire hut and looks for any potion that could be used for intense healing. Maybe he could whip one up of his own right here.

After finding nothing that was ready to use, Steve had to turn to the recipe book the witch had with her. Not only did it have a motley of potions to create, but it also had very particular details on what was to be done. Steve was no alchemist; he could make the basic potions like Regeneration, Healing, Poison, and so on. He couldn't make an expert potion on his own. He had never even heard of the way the witch was making that weakness potion, but it didn't seem to affect Steve in the long run.

* * *

Steve got to work the moment he found an Extreme Revival Potion, one that's guaranteed to bring Alex back to consciousness, whether she was already dead or not. It was a wonder she was alive. Steve had also never encountered a coma in Minecraft.

Steve has to hurry if he wanted to stop the Ender Threat. The deadline was coming quick, and they need to find the stronghold as quickly as possible before it was too late. Inside the chest were some ender pearls, and blaze powder was there for potions. He uses them to create a total of fifteen potions, more than enough to fill in the portal if he needed to. All he needed now was for Alex to wake up.

But one question lingered in his mind, one that hung since the very beginning: who orchestrated this ordeal? Who's idea was it to take over the world and make it the End? What good would it do to that being?

That wasn't Steve's only concern. After giving her the potion, she hadn't responded. If it was so extreme, it should've worked in under a minute, right?

He waited and waited, nearly all day, but she didn't even move. Steve was determined. He would dose her with another one two days from now. If it didn't work, he'll keep giving her the same potion, but stronger than the last. He won't lose hope, not now. Not in a time like this.

After the sixth day, Alex hadn't moved at all. Steve had tried everything: strong regeneration, strong healing, pouring a bucket of water over her, even the use of strong swiftness. He used everything the witch had that was positive, just to bring her back. Steve leaned against the crafting table. Was there anything else he could do? Was she dead? Was the coma permanent?

Steve refused to believe it, but every day of it not working, he would come to terms with it very slowly. He knew he shouldn't, and his mind told him not to, but there was no other choice. She was truly dead.

Steve felt as if the world was spinning. His legs were wobbly, like it was knee deep in water. He was frozen. Steve didn't want to believe it, even though every part of his body was telling him that it was true. There was no denying it. He wanted the world to leave him. He wanted no pain, no suffering, just silence. He wanted to go with her, wherever her body was going. He wanted to join her and let the world disappear along with the rest of his memories of it. He wanted to leave this chapter behind and never speak of it again.

But he can't.

So, sighing and shaking with the severity of a dying silverfish, he took out a piece of paper from the witch's chest, along with an ink sac and feather, and began writing to her a letter for her when she wakes up. Putting that near the door, he leaves, untying the lead. "I'm so sorry, Alex..." he whispers, mounting the saddle and using the Eyes of Ender he had to lead the way.

"I'm so, so sorry..."

* * *

**Welp, five more chapters left! Will Steve prevail?**

**Well idk rn tbh **

**Thanks anyways!  
-DWalkthroughGuy**


	26. Chapter 26

Steve tosses another Eye of Ender into the air. He looks up at the sky, finding it landing far down below, deep down a cliff. He was currently in another jungle, and there were many steep hills and deep dropoffs that were covered in foliage and bushes, making them difficult to spot. But now the abrupt cutoff was visible. He stops his horse, looking for a side that he could get down to.

He wanted so badly to jump. It was so easy. The depth was more than 22 blocks, more than enough needed to kill Steve. He just needed to dismount the saddle and jump. He wanted to end it all. He never wanted to be reminded of the constant, nagging of Alex in his mind. He hated to admit it. This whole time they were supposed to be mortal enemies, enemies for life. We would be fighting to see who would save the world first, and to see who would become the better ruler of the Overworld.

But now, Steve would hate it. If that were to happen, he would regret it dearly. He didn't even have time to tell her...

To tell her he actually...loved her...

Steve sighs, knowing that it won't be easy to leap off the cliffsides. He was undoubtedly depressed, and he couldn't shake his mind off of...

Her...

Steve wanted to get angry. He wanted to blame Alex for this mess. If it wasn't for her, he wouldn't have to feel this way. In fact, he might have defeated the Ender Threat already. Nothing would interrupt his way.

But he had to divulge, if it wasn't for her, he never would have gotten this far. She had the supplies, and she had the heart, to keep him going. Steve wanted her back. He didn't care if the Ender Threat would engulf the world and spawn endermen everywhere and stab obsidian pillars through everything or caused pesky endermites to swarm their homes. It didn't matter. All he wanted was Alex.

Steve steers the horse parallel to the cliff's edge, making sure that they wouldn't go at least three blocks close. There, they finally saw a river cutting through the jungle floor below. Steve and the horse fall from their cliff, landing in the water safely. The current sweeps them downstream, and Steve got off the horse. He runs and gets the dropped Ender Eye and catches up with the horse further downstream.

He throws the Ender Eye again, but sees it float up lower than usual. He must be getting close. He sighs an even more exhausted sigh. "You were so close..." he whispers, setting down a fence post and tying a lead to the horse. He tests the location one more time by throwing the Eye of Ender. This time, it lands precisely on a block. With another confirmation test, Steve could see that it was the exact location of a stronghold. Arming his diamond shovel, he starts by digging a 2x1 hole.

Steve hops down on one side and digs another block of dirt out. He then shovels out two more blocks downward, but on the other side. He hops down to that side of the hole and digs down another block to the other side. He alternates between sides until he reaches stone, where he used his pickaxe instead. After a minute of seemingly endless digging, Steve digs out a block of stone which led straight down to a cave. He jumps, landing on his two feet.

A torch lit up the cave as Steve takes out his diamond sword. With a torch in one hand and a sword in the other, he ventures deeper into the cave, until he finds the entrance of a stronghold. He eagerly runs toward it, hoping to find the End portal quickly so he wouldn't get lost. Many times before, he would always end up confusing himself with rooms and tunnels he recognized, but could never quite piece together.

* * *

Alex's eyes open. She takes in a deep gasp for air, stretching her arm upwards. She sits up quickly. "I'm...I'm alive..." she slowly croaks. Crawling, she leans against the wooden wall of the hut, wondering why she was in this little shack. Did somebody kidnap her? If so, why wasn't she confined with a lead or chains? Alex couldn't remember much that happened since getting shot by the skeleton and falling in the magma, and she wondered if she forgot anything important that may have happened in between that.

But that didn't matter. She had to catch up to Steve. He obviously wasn't waiting around for him any longer. Alex had to collect her things and get back to wherever Steve was. Then she freezes.

Maybe he was already dead.

Fighting the Enderdragon, even with the best armor and tools, can be very difficult if you do it alone. Without the opportunity of respawn, fighting the Enderdragon would leave you flat on your back dead in the first thirty minutes of trying. Alex fought the restless beast once for a full hour, but of course, she had to respawn countless times, picking up the tools her old self had dropped, donned the armor as fast as she could, and continue with the onslaught.

Alex's mind drifted further into anxiety as she imagines the Endermen ganging up on Steve in a cluster. Not only is the dragon a problem, but so is the population living there. That is, if he wasn't wearing a pumpkin. If he did that, it would get rid of a significant amount of protection for Steve; the helmet was enchanted skillfully and did give quite a bit of a shielding boost.

Now breathing heavily with worry, she slowly but surely stands up, but her eyes catch something on the crafting table.

* * *

The smell of flourishing moss hung in the air as he could see entire patches of it clutching to the old, stone brick. Cobwebs not only hung in every corner, but also led him to the library, which was filled with nothing more but cheap trinkets like iron boots, a few blank books and even a golden apple, but he already had enough of those.

Steve continued to explore more of the stronghold in hopes to find the End Portal room. Along the way, he passes a hallway of prison cells, some of them occupied by an undead mob, whether that be a skeleton or a zombie. Sometimes, a silverfish or spider would be in there as well. Steve decides not to bother them.

Water drips echo throughout the entire tunnel system as Steve walks into the room with the End portal. Silverfish scurry to him, but he pierces them with his sword, killing them in one hit. Quickly adding a torch on the spawners, he sits on the End Portal frames, the actual portal not active yet. He holds the Eyes of Ender in his hand, glancing at the lava below. All he had to do was activate the portal and jump on the other side. That way, he wouldn't need to live with any pain. And, if Alex decided to wake up and she stumbled upon the stronghold, it would already be open to her.

'She better hope she can do it on her own' Steve scoffs, placing the Eyes of Ender into their proper slots.

After all frames are filled, the portal finally opens: a black void showcasing the stars appeared. It didn't look too much to Steve, but he simply stared. The sight was beautiful, even for a portal entrance. It made no noise, and the air around it was not disturbed. Luckily for him, no more silverfish spawned to push him around any longer.

Looking back at the entrance of the stronghold, he sighs, just hoping that if Alex ever wakes up, she would know what to do. He trusted her. She was a smart girl, right?

Steve holds his breath and hops into the emptiness of the End.

* * *

**Steve prepares to fight the Enderdragon and end the conflict once and for all!**

**But can he do it alone?**

**Thanks anyways!  
-DWalkthroughGuy**


	27. Chapter 27

Steve's eyes snap open. The lighting was low, which was what he expected. The sound of idle Endermen resonated above him. The sky everywhere was looming purple static, with no end in sight. Steve found himself on an obsidian platform underground. He digs out a staircase to the surface.

He immediately takes off his helmet and replaces it with a pumpkin. 'It'll be hard to fight with this, but it'll be worth it' he thinks to himself. Obsidian pillars stand tall and firm with ender crystals situated on top. The Enderdragon was flying around deviously, sometimes shoving Endermen out of the way. This was what Steve was ready for. He lived for this moment; the still air, the smell of raw pumpkin, the ungodly sight of the Enderdragon.

But, apart from the nagging feeling of Alex's absence, he felt something else. A supernatural being.

There he was, on an obsidian pillar looking down at Steve from high above. His bright white eyes shone through the darkness of the End. He was crouching down, a bloody iron sword in his left hand. "Seems as if you made it," he says quietly. Although it was in a quiet tone, Steve could still hear it from fifty blocks away. He gets into a fighting stance, holding his diamond sword in case he attacks.

"YOU wanted to make the world the End?" Steve shouts. He smiles.

"Correct. I formulated the Ender Plague. And, really, there's no stopping me. Legend is wrong. The villagers were all wrong. The dragon isn't the heart of the code." Herobrine swoops down in front of Steve. "I AM."

Herobrine stabs the iron sword into Steve, who widened his eyes in shock. The blade was cold in his stomach, somewhat numbing the pain of the actual stab. Herobrine floats to the ground as Steve falls down to the ground. "Why...did you want to take over the world?" Steve whispers, managing to say something despite the immense pain and damage dealt. It was just an iron sword, but it nearly took out all of his health. Yet again, it was Herobrine wielding it.

"Why? Well, I haven't had a home in years. Not a real one, at least. It was always the End, and every time your race STILL manages to make it here, because they're persistent little shrews, I have to scamper away into another world. And whenever I go to their dimension, they kick me out, reporting me for strange behavior and bunkering themselves in because I'm different. Well, you know what? I've had it with that. I'm taking this world and you're not going to stop-" A diamond axe flies past Herobrine's head. He slides over to the left, dodging the projectile.

He looks at Steve with a smile. "You sly dog! You caught me monologuing!" He spawns a command block, fitting on the palm of his blocky hand. "So, since you're so antsy and decided not to listen to my story, I guess I have something to show you that might be interesting..." He presses some buttons, and a hologram appears. "I woke up your friend, Alex," he says. Steve looks at the hologram, which was displaying her current perspective. She was deep within the jungle, searching for something, the letter Steve left flapping in her hand. The wind was strong and cold where she was at.

"That's not real. You're lying," Steve coughs, still bleeding from the stab.

"Don't worry though, she's in great company..." the hologram now shows the view of an Enderman, with color inverted and the quiet mumbles radiating off the strange creature. More Endermen were hiding between the trees and under the bushes, shrouded in darkness. Their bodies were barely visible, but their eyes shone like diamonds, even in inverted colors.

"What are you going...to..." Without saying it, Steve agreed that it was Alex, and he was sure it really was. Herobrine lands on the ground gently, with one hand on his hip and the other holding the command block. His face was simply filled with glee, amused at the chaos he's about to unleash.

Steve uses every bit of strength he has left, quickly stands up and charges towards him, his diamond sword held forward. Herobrine puts his hand on the tip with his other hand, blocking the attack as if it was a mere stick. "Don't try to play games with me, young man..." he roundhouse kicks him, catapulting him in the sky. Herobrine flies up to his height and slams his fist down, causing Steve to be shoved into an ender crystal. The glass explodes, and Steve is sent soaring again.

Herobrine swoops in and punches him in the gut, sending him flying across the mainland into another pillar. "Because you're standing..." Herobrine picks up the pillar and chucks it across the diameter of the island again, nearly crushing Steve when it landed. Endermen teleported and scramble away when the pillar was swiftly aplroaching. "...on MY playpen!"

Steve crawls out of the rubble, surprised how long his health had persevered through all of the damage. Herobrine stands in front of Steve, the bloody iron sword yet again in his left hand. "You have to play by MY rules!" He looks up at the figure looming over him. "And so will your friend..." he cackles maniacally, tossing the command block in front of Steve.

The hologram was still playing. As Herobrine kicks his head back and laughs, Steve watches in horror. The Endermen zero in on Alex. Suddenly, there was a blur, and the only sound came from it was the sound of screaming. Herobrine steps on it, crushing the block and ending the hologram immediately.

"Do you believe me now?" Herobrine holds the iron sword out, the bloody tip pointed at Steve. The latter was still on his stomach, his legs crushed by the obsidian.

"Yes..." he coughs, letting out a defeated sigh. "But that doesn't mean I lose!" Steve pulls his legs out of the pillar and nicks Herobrine in the face with the diamond sword from earlier. It was a wonder how Steve managed to hold on to the cutlass.

"Well, whatever you say," Herobrine says nonchalantly, holding his bloody iron sword ready. "Fighting me won't help your escape any, if that's what you're planning." He circles Steve with a casual stroll. "But a good swordfight is always great practice."

Steve has an idea in mind. 'If this doesn't work, I don't know what will' he thinks.

Herobrine swoops forward, pointing his sharp sword at Steve. Steve blocks it and goes for the handle. Unfortunately, Herobrine was able to tightly hold on to it. Steve takes another direct swing for the handle, but instead gets sliced in the leg.

Steve's health, although miraculously still existent, was rapidly depleting. He ran out of steaks, and he had already used his golden apples when he entered the End. Herobrine didn't wait; he immediately comes in and slams the sword on his right arm, causing him to fly him off to the far left.

'His sword has all the power...' Steve muses. 'What if I use that to kill the dragon?' He runs forward and swings his diamond sword at Herobrine, who didn't have time to pull his sword out of the way on time. The iron blade lands just a few meters away.

Steve suddenly felt the overpowering presence leave the End. The sword must have been a central part of his power. Herobrine and Steve race to it, but the latter swings his diamond sword to his left, hitting Herobrine in the chest. Using his time, Steve takes the iron sword and runs toward the dragon. 'Better be enough...' Herobrine was coughing for Steve to stop, but it was too late.

The sword lands right in between the dragon's eyes. It stops and levitates, a light shining from within it and a drone drowning in the mess. The remains explode, leaving behind a portal and a rain of experience orbs sprinkling the ground.

* * *

**Sorry I'm taking so long with everything!**

**Thanks anyways!**

**-DWalkthroughGuy**


	28. Chapter 28

The drone of the dragon wears off as the last of the experience lands on the ground. Herobrine's eyes widen, running over to the bedrock portal. He collects all of the experience orbs laid out, but that wasn't what he was there for. He was searching for the iron sword, which was destroyed during the explosion of the dragon. A majority of his energy was now lost, Herobrine didn't have much to use against Steve.

Steve feels a wave of power coursing through his veins. It pulsed through him, filling every pixel and crevice in his body. It was unfamiliar, like an ancient spirit was finally unleashed within him. Herobrine looked at him with disgust. "The sword is lost...the power is gone...but that doesn't stop the code!" Herobrine scrambles on the bedrock frame and hops in, smiling wildly at Steve.

Gasping, Steve runs over to the portal, which was much farther than he had previously expected.

But, as he ran, he lost the feeling in his legs, like he was running on air.

Well, he _was_ running on air. In fact, he was flying, floating freely at his own will. There were only the same items in his inventory, so he definitely wasn't in Creative Mode, but he had a supernatural power now. An intangible force fueling his abilities.

And now was his time to fight.

* * *

Herobrine opens his eyes with a snap in a forest, the sun shining through the individual leaves. The wind was gently blowing, and the foliage swayed in the wind. It was a peaceful day.

One that wouldn't last for long.

Mustering what magic he had left, Herobrine leaps off of the ground and stays up, standing on air just as Steve had. He flies up higher, slowly rebalancing himself after each block he rose. There, in the distance, he spotted the tip of a wooden roof: a village house. Grinning with impish glee, he heads over immediately, wondering where he would begin the End Plague.

Steve opens his eyes with a snap in a flowered forest. It was beautiful, with a motley of colors dotting the landscape. A bunch of azure bluets here, a cluster of poppies there, and a brook slowly flowing westward made for a perfect landscape. Maybe one to start a home.

But that wasn't the concern here, Steve had to find Herobrine.

"I have to stop this before it starts!"

Unfortunately for Steve, he didn't even know where to start. He didn't even know where he was. His sense of direction was off, it was like spawning in an entirely new world. He doesn't even remember the coordinates of his and Alex's house! It was a feeling he had encountered many times: mining in an abandoned mineshaft, meandering in a stronghold, exploring the other half of the world he had missed. It was the feeling of being lost.

And what made him feel even more nauseous was not knowing where Alex was. Steve looks around the plains, finding nothing but more rolling hills and varieties of flowers. Some oak trees stood alone near the brook, but it didn't give enough of a clue to indicate where he was at. Instead of looking around, Steve looks down, wondering if he could do something with his feet again. He focuses on his feet mentally. Maybe if he thought about it, he could telekinetically float again. Perhaps he can even fly around, giving him more mobility.

Steve widens his eyes with joy as his feet rose two blocks from the ground. 'That's a start...' he thinks, rising even higher in the air. After a minute, he was able to fly freely. 'It must be the power of the iron sword!' he theorizes. Holding the sword must've been enough to give him magical powers, and now it was passed off to him! Steve flies up to the heavens, eventually reaching the clouds. He looks down at the land below, not getting too many clues of the landscape. He flies northward for a bit, hoping he could find more familiar landscapes here.

Ten minutes pass, and Steve was afraid that he was actually getting himself off course even more. He pressed through, knowing that it would eventually lead to some part of their journey.

After some more searching and sweaty panic, Steve sees something in the distance he recognizes.

A quaint little cottage sat on the top of a plateau. Other tall, natural, stone chunks sat in the distance. From a while ago, Steve remembers the little cottage; he remembers finding Alex's mansion nearby.

But Steve heard something else in the distance: the village. It was being burned, and, even from that distance, Steve could hear fire crackling and buildings collapsing. Swooping down to get near the gravel road, he finds the village already burned to its foundations. The cobblestone barely supported itself, and many of the walls had already fallen to the ground. Villagers screamed for help; some cried, some ran around helplessly, some were even on fire, racing to the central well.

The only building that was left standing was the temple, which was where Herobrine stood. It just so happened to be the same village that Alex frequented. On the roof, he seemed to by typing commands on a command block. "Is he setting the code already?!" Steve exclaims, zooming at him even faster. He had his diamond sword in his hand, and he was ready for another battle.

Herobrine looks up in fear to see Steve fly at him at such an incredible speed, and dodges, Steve flying right past him. "Don't...set...the code!" Steve begs, turning around and flying at Herobrine again. Herobrine holds up the bloody iron sword at Steve again, and now was the latter's turn to dive out of the way.

Herobrine grins with mischief, finishing up the line of text he had worked hard typing in. "I believe you might be a bit too late..." the powerful being picks up the command block, holding it over the edge of the temple roof.

"No!" Steve flies down to snatch the block out of the air, but Herobrine had dropped it too soon. The block hits the gravel road.

The block explodes with an amazing force, with nothing to hear but a high pitched noise, and nothing to see but a white flash.

The blast shoves Steve with such a force, it knocks him unconscious.

* * *

Snow fell to the ground as the wind slowly picked up speed. Steve's eyes slowly open. The first feeling that him was the sharp cold, penetrating his diamond armor with ease. They weren't a good insulator anyways.

As he stands up, the snow crunch beneath his feet. It was dark, and the sky was draped in curtains of snow. It was pouring down in sheets; a snowstorm Steve hadn't seen in weeks.

Fortunately for him, his physical state didn't affect his magic abilities, and he was able to float up with ease. His legs ached, his arms were numb, but there was nothing he could do about it.

In the far distance, he hears rumbling on the ground. A deep groan echoes in the skies, and, even through the thick snowflakes in the whiteout, Steve sees the ground turning into End Stone.

He WAS too late.

Pillars of obsidian rise in the sky as the shock wave of the explosion continues. Steve flies the other direction, hoping to catch Alex before the wave hit her. There was no way to stop it, that's for sure. All of the trees fall and convert into End Stone, just like the rest of the ground and snow. Looking up, Steve could see that the sky within the End was purple static, devoid of any snow.

Flying southward as fast as Steve could, he passes the ravine that he had fell into before, and he continues down the taiga, only to have the rumbling grow closer and closer each second. He could see the spruce trees fall in his peripheral vision, and occasional obsidian pillars rising up through the ground like fortresses.

The mountains pass under him, soon soaring over the swamp he had fought the witch in.

Finally, he enters the second jungle. Steve finds the hole he was looking for. Using all the speed he can gather, he swoops down into the pit he dug up. He enters the stronghold, the rumbling growing louder as the structure shook.

Where was Alex now?

* * *

**Yey. A chapter that didn't take months to plan out and write.**

**Thanks anyways!  
-DWalkthroughGuy**


	29. Chapter 29

'The world is ending...' Alex thinks. She was on the floor, knees to her chest. She knew from the explosion that Steve was too late. The Endermen had picked her up and put her in a room within the stronghold, her tools, armor and weapons all confiscated somehow. Was that the work of something else?

"I don't know anymore..." she mumbles to herself. She was going insane not knowing what was happening. Was the world REALLY turning into the End? Were her creations ruined? And, most importantly, was Steve alright? She bangs on the iron door of the tight, claustrophobic room she was in, nearly fainting from the muggy and hot air around her. "PLEASE let me out! Please, please, please!"

One of the Endermen slam their thin, stick-like arms on the door, making a surprisingly loud knock. Alex plonks herself down on the mossy stone floor. She didn't care about their previous relationship either. All Alex wanted was Steve, even if that meant certain death. Just one last time, one final moment to tell him, before everything was gone. It pained her so much to know that that was not the case; all because of these stupid Endermen.

* * *

Steve, feeling the rumble of the transformation beneath his feet, was frenetic. He was searching in every little stairwell, iron bar cell and room for ANY sign of Alex. Maybe there would be an encounter of Endermen, knowing that they probably had something to do with her kidnapping.

'If she's alive...' he says. He slapped himself for that.

"Alex?!" he calls, seeing another unlit hallway. Eagerly floating past it, he only ends up in a dead end, disappointing himself further. Most of his frustration soon becomes full-fledged anger as he keeps reentering the same rooms he had already been to. And when he does see a new room, it was always empty or a dead end. Nothing was showing up.

"Alex!" he shouts again. The only sound he could hear was his own echo. He wasn't losing hope, not now. "Where the Nether could she be?!" He had turned the place inside out TWICE, but still couldn't find a single confirmation that she was in here. "Maybe she didn't make it, maybe she couldn't fight off the Endermen. I should've been more patient with her! Now she's gone...and it's all my fault too!"

He runs past the same hallway he entered for the third time. Holding his pickaxe, he smashes the stone brick floor. He was getting really desperate now.

"Alex!" he yells. Maybe there was a dungeon or a hidden room that he hadn't noticed. 'But I'll never be able to get through all of the floors...' he thinks to himself, but he continues to dig. "Alex!"

* * *

Alex hears her name ring in her head, as if someone was calling her. 'I must be growing more insane...' she thinks, unable to shake the image of Steve her head. 'Just...stop...thinking about him! He's fine!' she lies to herself, banging on the iron door for the umpteenth time. Her fist started to hurt from the constant punching. "LET ME OUT YOU-"

"Silence!" a familiar voice bellows back. Alex stops. That was no Enderman.

She stands up so she could look through the peepholes of the door. It was Herobrine.

"What...YOU did this, didn't you?!" she makes a wild guess, and, she was surprisingly right. "Why?! Why didn't you take another world?! One WITHOUT any life?" Herobrine responds with a vindictive smile, acknowledging sweet success.

"That's exactly why I took this one."

Alex looks at him with the most evil glare she could make. It only made him grin even wider, and even laugh.

"I'm sorry, miss. There's simply no stopping it. The command has been set, the block has been dropped, and the world has already ended. This world is mine!" he flies through the ceiling above him, laughing hysterically.

* * *

Steve digs down another brick block, wiping the sweat off his forehead. The stone felt as if it was getting harder and harder to crack. He stops mid-pick after hearing something in the far distance. His name...

"Alex?" he says worriedly, knowing that he was at the right heigh now. He stops digging and follows the direction of the sound as best he can. It was hard to tell, as all of the hallways echoed each voice and sound, causing a flurry of infinite voices, only for it to end as quickly as it began.

He reaches a corner. Steve stops and leans forward to see what was behind it.

There was an iron door with two Endermen standing beside it. But there was someone else with them. "You!" Steve yells, readying his fists. "You didn't have to do this!" The shaking of the ground crescendoes as the End code continues to spread at a phenomenal rate.

Herobrine grins. It was obvious that Alex was behind the iron door. "You still don't GET it, do you?!" he bellows in reply. "You want a negotiation? You want to...to...to have your own PLOT of land for yourselves? I've made the mistake of trust too many times before, and I'm not making it again. You humans are fine at first, rebuildiing your houses and villages in your plots. Then, you get greedy. After a few months, you want MORE land. Then more, then more! Soon, you'll be revolting against me, and I lose everything all over again! Now I'm not taking any beggars. This world is not being taken from me, and I'm taking revenge at the same time..."

He arms himself with a diamond sword. The rumble of the ground was getting closer, and Herobrine soars to the surface, leaving the two behind. Steve rushes over to the iron door and smashes it open as the Endermen teleport back to their homeland.

The two shout out the other's name in unison. After a long embrace, Steve holds on to Alex tightly. "Goin' up!" he warns, flying up the same hole Herobrine did.

"Why did he let us go like that?" she asks, slightly confused. The End was everywhere when they reached the surface. The code was embedded within every block, transforming them from stone, dirt and trees to pure End stone and obsidian.

Steve had to fight Herobrine, to keep him from doing worse. There had to be a way to reverse this. But all he needed was a command block. Where would he find one of those?

He flies (with Alex) back to the village, where the command block was dropped by Herobrine. He inspects the code, not understanding a single tag in it. He erases it and puts in a code he learned when he was an amateur mapmaker. That occupation didn't last long, but he brought his knowledge with him.

He recites the coordinates of a special place in his head. The idea was to make an island high up in the clouds, put Alex there and go fight Herobrine. After finishing the clone command (with some extra tags), he sets the command block to work, faithful that the command executed without interjecting the End Code in a negative way.

Steve, in the middle of inputting another command, was hit in the back with a big stone block, cracking his back almost into halves. His hand rushes to the spot, and his head was thrown back in pain. He doesn't move, as the slightest strain would aggravate his spine. Alex gasps incredulously, but Steve didn't want her involved.

"There's no reversing the End code, Steve." Herobrine reads Steve's mind as if it was written out in chat in front of him. "It's not something that can be converted to the Overworld again. That's not how my coding works. The truth is, you can't stop me."

He finishes the code and presses enter, activating it again. Alex disappears, teleported to the island. 'One more command...' he thinks, putting in the /fill command one more time to turn the command block into air. Steve's teeth were grinding from pain. He talks with a stressed voice and, every once in a while, stopped because of his back, "Okay...I lost...can we live our...final moments in peace?"

But Herobrine wasn't done. Running up to him with a diamond sword, Steve turns around and punches it away with his hand, which instead cuts into his skin like an arrow through an apple.

Herobrine kicks him back away from the command block. Just before Herobrine's hands could touch the buttons, Steve tackles him to the ground, socking Herobrine in the face. "Why..."

The latter shoves Steve back with his feet. He scrambles to the command block, hoping to stop Steve from doing whatever he was intending to do. "...did you do this?"

"Haven't I explained this already?"

Steve flies forward as fast as he could, hugging Herobrine during his flight. He lands with Herobrine as the bottom platform, grinding the gravel on his back. "You think earthly pain will stop me?" Steve flies up and speeds toward the ground, ignoring Herobrine's nonchalant remarks. He had to stop him, or, if not, slow him down enough so he has time to destroy the command block.

"As much as earthly beings will!" Steve's landing dug Herobrine into the ground a good two blocks. Steve flies back to the command block, frantically trying to finish the line of code with his left hand.

After finally entering and activating the command, the block disappears literally into thin air. "No more commands for you," Steve sputters, his voice dry and throaty. Herobrine didn't care anymore. He got what he wanted: a land for himself and the world for his own creation. It was irreversible, and nothing can stop it or stoo his kingdom.

But that wasn't Steve's main concern. 'Alex is in a safe place now...' Steve reminds himself, trying his hardest to ignore the sharp pain that cried on his back and hand. 'She's fine. He can take me instead. It's alright...everything is okay...'

"You think your girlfriend is safe from me? Just because you relocated her?" Herobrine smiles with glee, getting up unscathed. "Steve, trust me. There won't be much time left for anything in this world. There will only be the End, and there will only be me."

Steve wasn't letting that happen. He wanted to live peacefully with Alex. Live in harmony with nature and others. Not in constant threat of death and constant fleeing.

"I'm not just gonna give it to you, Herobrine. I'm not going down without a fight. Not like this."

"Hmph. You're a stubborn child, aren't you?" Steve shuddered at Herobrine calling him a child.

"Just as much as you may be."

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Steve's face grimaces with a mix of physical pain and rage. He flies forward, diamond sword in hand, his only motivation to keep going was the vision of Alex in his mind. His hope that they could live again in the Overworld that they were born in, their home that they own. Not with one being the owner, but together. Without dispute, and without argument.

'That'll have to wait...' Steve thinks, swinging his blade at his target.

* * *

**I DEEPLY APOLOGIZE MY FELLOW READERS!  
**

**I'm sorry I haven't uploaded anything! I had school and work and I went to Georgia for stuff and...**

**Tl;dr : a lot of work + procrastination = slow story content updates**

**Thanks anyways!  
-DWalkthroughGuy**


	30. Chapter 30

Alex wakes up on a soft, silky red bed. The bright light of the sun fills her eyes as she rolls over to her side. Her eyes adjust to the brightness, and she focuses on the island she was on.

This was bigger than a Skyblock plot, but it was small enough to see the edge from one end. It was a considerable size of grass, trees and a sparkling stream. The first thing she notices were the flowers, how they were all spread out so beautifully. They grew in sizable clumps, like little colonies independent from the other species. A small cluster of white and brown bunnies hopped through them, timidly pecking at a colony of dandelions.

Alex gets up, stretching all the limbs of her body. Even though she felt like her sleep was long, her muscles weren't weak. She walks forward towards the edge of the island, where the flowers and plants went up to the top of her boots. A light breeze gently rocks the plants back and forth.

She leans over the edge and sees the world below, just as it was when Alex left it: a desolate End world. A translucent, purple fog made it hard to see the surface, and multiple ender crystal pillars stuck through it like high-rise towers. Was her island safe from the code? She searched the entire island for Steve, and she looked down below, but there wasn't any luck. As she walked back to her bed, she saw a piece of paper lying on it that she hadn't noticed before. She rushes to pick it up before it blew away.

All it said was a scrawled sentence that that looked liked it was scrawled out in a struggle.

"Wait for me," Alex reads allowed. She reads the line over and over again, as if another message will appear. "Wait for you?" she says. Alex contemplates on what this might mean. Did he mean it literally? Where was she going to wait for him? Down below? Was he referring to death?

Alex does a mini-pout on the velvety blankets. What was she going to do with the meantime?

"Well...there are seeds for wheat...there're trees for wood...water for farmland...and a cave for minerals..." she mutters the list as if she was going to the village for a trade outing. After a minute of thinking about what Steve was doing down there, she got up to go punch some trees, and hopefully kill the time as best she can.

* * *

**364 Days Later**

Ever since Steve had left her, the world had gone to chaos.

At least, the world below her was.

Purple static edged at the horizons, slowly becoming more and more visible throughout the day. Eventually, the purple static hung out at the horizon, everywhere Alex looked. It crawled up and took up more to the sky, surpassing the moon, surpassing the stars, until there's eventually one spot left.

Alex originally created the habit of crawling up to the roof so she could stargaze, always determined and hopeful that she'd find a glimpse of Steve whizzing by, sacrificing himself so he could constantly defend her from Herobrine.

She thought it was so strange, that, being the person that resented him so much, and as a result, was hated back, they've managed to grow as one. 'Why would he be the one trying to defend me?' she would think, sitting cross-legged on her wooden stair roof. She had come to the conclusion that they were in love a long time ago, but it took her even longer to realize that this wasn't a silly crush, it was something more.

Something within herself, something within the air around her, made it feel as if they were made for this purpose, the purpose for being put together. Like a power that swept the universe and the code around her.

But as the sleepless nights drawled on, she got tired of reliving memories so far into the past. She was done with pretending that he was there.

Worst of all, she was tired of waiting.

"I've had enough of waiting..." she whispers, her real voice raspy from yelling and screaming.

Her house was burning in front of her, and she watched it, a lit torch in her hand. She smiled with raging satisfaction. Alex was done with everything. She had decided that it was over for her.

'Who cares what he's done...' her voice was quivering. Alex was pushing down what little bit of regret she had in her system. She drops her torch, which ignites a field of light grass. Her malicious grin grows as fire consumes everything, deteriorating it until it turns into ash, then falling to the ground. It was nothing more than a vicious cycle.

And Alex loved it.

* * *

She didn't care if she had gone insane. Alex had fallen into the clutches of another mind. There was no way she could turn back by herself. Something had taken over her.

Her bout of insanity left her. Her consciousness reappeared, and she regained her senses. Alex saw the destruction she caused. It was as if she had woken up to this.

"What have I..." The last time she remembered this happening was when she trashed her own house. All of her pieces of furniture were tipped over, her chests were ransacked and her farms were trampled. She woke up on her own shredded bed.

She looked at her own hands, which had charcoal and ash all over it.

"I'm a monster..."

The moon was passing over the remaining patch of night sky left.

"There's...there's no hope...for me...f-for the world..." her eyes watered as flames nip at her boots.

Alex rushes to the edge of the floating island, tears running down her face.

"I...I can't...live with you like this...you can't..."

She looks down at what abyss she could see below. Shutting her eyes tight and biting her bottom lip as hard as she can, she struggled to hold back. Alex had contemplated this before. She didn't want to. She didn't need to.

Her boots near the edge. One of them hangs in the air, a few stones and dirt clods falling from the cliff and grass blocks.

"I'm sorry Steve..."

Wind rushes past her orange hair as she soars through the wind. She could feel the ground nearing as she tries her best to push out images of Steve in her head.

Suddenly, something breaks her fall.

Scrambling quickly, she thrashes her arms and legs before being picked up by a strong force, before eventually stopping. She was tired. It was over, right?

'Is this what death feels like?' she thinks to herself, not bothering to open her eyes. 'Well, it's dark. Quiet. Weightless. But...I'm conscious?' She felt as if she was hanging in space and time. There was no cold, no hot. No ground, no air. Just nothing.

"Alex!" a familiar voice calls. She opens her eyes. She didn't want to say his name.

"What...what are you doing here? I thought it was dead! It's been...been a year!" she shushes herself and calms down, only staring at his eyes.

"We can't win." Alex looks at him with denial. Can't win? But he had coding magic as well, right? He could return us from Herobrine, right?

"No. Don't say that."

"It's true. This is permanent. We can't live on like this."

She looked around herself. The texture of dirt seamlessly all around her infinitely. Everywhere he looked was filled with dirt. She couldn't walk anywhere, and he didn't look like he could either. What was she in?

"Steve..."

"Trust me, Alex. It's over. We didn't get to beat the Ender Threat. We failed. I failed." Alex hugs him.

"But you didn't fail me."

They hung in space time for a moment in each other's embrace. They didn't care that they were back at the world select, or whatever this was. They were just happy to be together.

* * *

"I...I don't know...wh-what took me...o-o-over back there..." Alex whispers. Steve's expression flattens. "It's just...I...something happened...I went mad...it was so long...since you were here..." she begins to tear up, trying to push away the moments as best as she could. All of the memories of being left behind. Of remembering her loneliness. Of not knowing what had happened to Steve.

"Something snapped...in me..."

"It was Herobrine. Every time you went mad. Every episode where you seemingly disconnected from yourself. It was him. After he took me prisoner, he showed off what he could do. He showed you destroying your own home, little by little, until you eventually destroyed it. It killed me inside. It broke my heart knowing that I couldn't do anything to help you. He overrid my powers, and I was back to square one."

Alex looked away. She wasn't quite sure who suffered the most. But did it matter? It wasn't a contest.

"So...we can't go back? Is it over for that world?" Alex sniffs, wiping a tear from her eye. Her voice was shaky and a little dry. She couldn't believe that everything she had worked hard for was now gone. And if it wasn't gone, it's definitely been destroyed.

But she had hope. She wanted to go back and defeat Herobrine and his code. She wanted a happy ending. The world as she knew it couldn't end like this.

"No, Alex. That world's done." The words hung in the air. Or, in this case, time and space.

"What do we do now?" she mutters. "If we make another one all he'll do is destroy it again. Will he not? He might find us again-"

"As long as we'll be together. The whole thing will be worthwhile." They both stare at each other. Steve smiles tiredly. "Who cares if he comes back and kills us? We'll set it to Survival, and we'll just delete it and start over if we need to."

"But...starting over so many times..."

"Whatever it takes. As long as-"

"-we're together."

Alex and Steve both put their hands together, waiting for the loading screen to spawn them in their new world.

* * *

**WELP.**

**That's all with that story. ****I may or may not do an epilogue to follow-up, but this is the official end.**

**And don't even get me started on how long this took. Several of you finally reminded me to get moving and stop doing nothing, so I made sure this was done as best as I could have. Again, I solemnly apologize for the wait, but I highly doubt that will ever appease your soul. Understandable.**

**Thanks anyways!**

**-DWalkthroughGuy**


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